The College of Law Alumni Association has announced an exciting change to its Student Competition for 2017. In past years the competition has been for an essay responding to a general question on legal practice. From 2017, students may still submit an essay up to 2000 words, but especially creative students may instead submit a video (up to three minutes long) to achieve the same thing.
There are two $3,000 prizes for the competition, which is open to all current College of Law students undertaking Practical Legal Training (PLT) in Australia, The Professional Legal Studies Course (PLSC) in New Zealand, and Applied Law Program (ALP) students.
Students will be asked to use their creative flair and interpret, in 2000 words or on video, the selected topic: ‘What makes a lawyer in 2017?’ One $3000 prize will be awarded for the best PLT/PLSC student entry, and another $3000 prize will be awarded for the best ALP student entry.
Doug Humphreys, President of The College of Law Alumni Association, said, “It will be fascinating to see how law students and current practitioners approach the question which is both timely and timeless in our ancient but endlessly evolving profession. It’s also a question which offers equal scope to both writers and film-makers to be inventive and artful. I look forward very much to seeing the shortlist which is always of very high calibre.”
This is a great opportunity for law students to show their enthusiasm and knowledge of the field. We encourage students to be as creative as they like and it is entirely up to them how they interpret the topic - whether broad, niche, mainstream or left field. We are looking forward to seeing the range of submissions.
Entries close at 5pm AEST on Friday 15 September 2017. To enter, students should complete the Student Essay Competition Entry Form and upload their essay in PDF format (video submission details to be confirmed). The essay must be the student’s own original work, must not have been previously published and if submitting a video it must contain the College’s logo.
Rules & Conditions
- To be eligible for a COLAA Prize you must be enrolled in either a PLT, PLSC or ALP course in the relevant year at The College of Law Australia or The College of Law New Zealand.
- The work submitted may address the topic in any way but must be your own original work.
- The work may be an essay of up to 2000 words or a video no longer than three minutes (including credits).
- Please use this form to make your submission.
- Video entries must include an image of the College logo.
- The work must not have been published previously.
- The student retains copyright in the work but grants to the College of Law Ltd a non-exclusive licence to publish the work or part thereof.
- The winners must be prepared to come to Sydney for the November COLAA function, give a short presentation and take questions from a COLAA Panel.
- The papers will be judged by a panel convened by the COLAA Executive, and the COLAA Executive reserve the right not to award a prize in any given year if none of the entries are deemed worthy.
- The prizes will be paid in Australian dollars.
- The COLAA will pay for a return airfare (within Australia or New Zealand) and one night’s accommodation in Sydney for winners outside NSW (or winners from regional NSW).