Our Future Legal Mind 2016 winner was Tom Phillips, while George Croft was highly commended.
Pictured here are Tom (right) and George (left) receiving their awards from Simon Trott of NAHL Group at an awards ceremony held at Lincoln's Inn.
The essay question
For our 2016 competition, we asked entrants to write an essay responding to the following question:
Is the commoditisation of legal services inevitable and is a commercial approach more likely to compromise or enhance the quality of advice and service to consumers?
Prizes
For his winner's prize, our competition winner Tom received a £5,000 prize fund to help with her career development and completed a work experience placement at one of our partner law firms.
Runner up George, whose entry was highly commended, received a bursary of £2,000 and also completed a work placement.
Future Legal Mind 2016: Our finalists
WINNER: Tom Phillips
Tom was a GDL student at City Law School when he was named as our Future Legal Mind 2016 winner. He had previously studied his undergraduate degree in politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University.
Tom joined QEB Hollis Whiteman, a leading set of barristers chambers in the City of London, in January 2020 following the successful completion of his pupillage.
HIGHLY COMMENDED: George Croft
When he was named as runner up in Future Legal Mind 2016, George was studying for the graduate diploma in law (GDL) at the University of Law, Birmingham.
Since 2016 he has completed the LPC and a training contract at Ropes & Gray LLP in London.
George is now an associate in the Tax team at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP in London.
Finalist: Charlotte Jose
Charlotte was a third year LLB Law student at the University of Portsmouth when she was named as a Future Legal Mind 2016 finalist.
Finalist: Daniel Doig
Daniel, from Knaresborough in North Yorkshire, was in the second year of his LLB Law at Leeds Beckett University when he was named on our 2016 shortlist.
Since graduating in 2017, he has been working as a fee-earner in the Financial Litigation team at Oakwood Solicitors in Leeds, to gain experience before moving on to postgraduate study.
Daniel is currently studying for the the BPTC at the University of Law, with the aim of being called to the Bar in summer 2021. He was awarded the Lord Denning scholarship in 2019 from Lincolns Inn.
Finalist: Isaac Creighton
Isaac was studying for the graduate diploma in law (GDL) at London Metropolitan University when he was named on our 2016 shortlist.
Finalist: Nada Aswad
Nada was a final year law student at Birkbeck, University of London when she was named as a Future Legal Mind finalist.
Nada, from Harlow in Essex, combined her law studies with a full-time job as a corporate PA in order to fund her degree.
Finalist: Pavlos Xagoraris
Pavlos was studying the graduate entry LLB at City Law School, following his undergraduate degree in Music Technology at the University of Hertfordshire, when he was named as one of our Future Legal Mind 2016 finalists.
Finalist: Rebecca Titus-Cobb
Rebecca, a Kings College London graduate from Staffordshire, was studying part-time at BPP University in Manchester for the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) alongside a full-time role when she was named on our 2016 competition shortlist.
Finalist: Ryan Pledge
Ryan was a student at Portsmouth University when he was named as one of our 2016 finalists.
Finalist: Simone Farrer
Simone was in her fourth year of studying Law at the University of Glasgow when she was named as a 2016 finalist.
