Emily Larke’s Inaugural Annual Law Lecture with Lady Hale

In November 2023 the University of Suffolk Legal Advice Centre had the pleasure of hosting our first Annual Law Lecture for students and the local legal community. The event took place in the Waterfront Building at the University of Suffolk, providing lots of space for students and local professionals to meet.

For me and many other first year students, this was the first networking event we have attended. Having so many professionals in one place seemed quite daunting at first, but volunteering with the Legal Advice Centre gave me a starting point when talking with any of the guests.

The Lecture started with an introduction by Eleanor Scarlett, who is the Director of the Legal Advice Centre, who organised the event. She brought up some of the biggest achievements of the Legal Advice Centre, which hopefully has made more people aware of what we do and how we help within the community.

Following this Amanda Timcke, the President of the Suffolk and North Essex Law Society, spoke about the next generation of lawyers, which as a first year was very insightful to listen to.

Miranda Hovarth, the Director of the Institute for Social Justice and Crime, then spoke about her research and how Lady Hale’s legislation and career has impacted not only everyday life for many people, but how diversity and inclusion are perceived in policing today.  This was particularly enlightening as it highlighted to everyone just how lucky we were to have Lady Hale as a guest lecturer.

Lady Hale, who was the first female Justice of the Supreme Court, then spoke at length about some of her key cases. I found this extremely interesting as the way she spoke kept everyone engaged. It was also beneficial to hear about her career and some of her well-known cases, as well as her contributions to key reforms of Acts.  She explained some of her reasoning around these, which I found to be very interesting.  The use of a Q&A at the end also opened up even more information that I had not considered asking.

Overall, the whole event was very memorable, and it helped me develop networking skills along with learning the law directly from someone who had such a large say in the development of it throughout the years. I hope in the rest of my years at the University, that guest lectures become a regular occurrence, and I would highly recommend anyone to attend if they can.