Becoming a member 

Eligibility to become a member

Membership of the Association is open to alumni of Durham University:

• who have been awarded an undergraduate or Masters Law degree by Durham University, or
• who have been awarded any other undergraduate or Masters degree by Durham University and who:
  • have qualified as a solicitor or barrister in England and Wales, or
  • have attained an equivalent qualification in other jurisdiction.

In addition, others with a strong connection with the Law School can apply to be considered for membership.

Membership fees

No membership fees are currently envisaged.

How to become a member

If you are eligible and would like to become a member of the Association, please complete the membership application form available here: https://forms.office.com/e/5snjXM3PhA

Membership benefits

Membership benefits include:

• invitations to events organised by the Association (and by its local chapters once established),
• a periodic newsletter (covering details of Association’s events and activities, news of its members and of the Law School and its students), and
• opportunities for closer involvement with the Law School and its students.

 These are covered in more detail below.

Membership benefits in more detail

Click on the below links to learn more about the benefits of being a member of the Association.

Invitations to events and networking opportunities

Newsletters

Send us your news

Becoming a mentor

Opportunities to give a guest lecture or talk or to judge a moot

Opportunities to support the Law School’s Employability Course

Opportunities to teach or for research collaboration

Opportunities to provide prizes for modules

Opportunities to support future generations of students through scholarships or to help cover some of their costs

Local Chapters

Other opportunities  

Invitations to events and networking opportunities

The opportunity to maintain and deepen the member’s links with the Law School and its students and with other members of the Association through the Association’s annual meeting, and through other networking events.

So often in life, serendipitous meetings with others with a common connection can lead to opportunities, whether for friendship or business development. Being a member of the Association will add to the range of opportunities open to you.

For local chapters, click here.

Newsletters

As a member you will be eligible to receive the Association’s periodic newsletter by email covering details of Association events and activities, news of its members and of the Law School and its students.

Send us your news

If you would like to share your own news with fellow members via one of our newsletters, please Contact us or respond to our call for your news in our newsletters.

Becoming a mentor

The student Law Society and the student Bar Society and a number of the other Law related student societies run mentoring schemes to match students wishing to have a mentor with a mentor; for example a mentor whose background and career are aligned with the background and career ambitions of the prospective mentee.

Whether you are a recent graduate or well established in your career, if you would like give some of your time to help the Law School’s students to achieve the careers to which they aspire, being a member of the Association is one way in which the Association can help you to have that role and engagement.

This is a time limited opportunity to become a mentor under a mentoring scheme run by the student Durham Law Society or the student Durham University Bar Society for the 2024/25 academic year. The sign up deadline for mentors is Monday, 7th October. More here: Mentoring opportunities in more detail

If this would be of interest to you, please register your interest by email (see Contact us below) or look out for more information in one of our newsletters.

Opportunities to give a guest lecture or talk or to judge a moot

If:

• you have a topic of interest on which you would be willing to give a guest lecture or talk, or
• you would have time to judge a moot,

 please Contact us by email. Being a member of the Association is one way in which the Association can help to connect you with:

• a Law related student society looking for a speaker or some one to judge a moot, or
• a module leader of an undergraduate or post graduate module looking for a guest lecturer with practitioner experience in the field in question.

Opportunities to support the Law School’s Employability Course

The Law School launched its Employability Course for first year Law undergraduates at the start of Michaelmas term 2023. It is a non-compulsory and non-academic credit bearing course led by the Law School’s Professor in Practice, Philip Bennett, a former Slaughter and May partner and Durham alumnus.

The course is very much a collaboration between the Law School, its students and its student societies. Its aim is to build on the academic knowledge and skills taught in the Law School. It provides additional resources and support for  students to enhance their employability skills and complements the support and resources provided by Durham University Careers & Enterprise Service.

It is a “non-credit bearing course” which has 2 parts to it.  The first part is for those students who wish to undertake the course with a view to obtaining a certificate of completion of the course. To do so, they must enrol in teams of 2 or 3 (Employability Twins or Triplets) and work through a number of the course assignments together (including producing career plans, CVs, undertaking in person or virtual internships (one Law and one non-Law) and written and presentation skills assignments). Of our 2023-24 first year Law undergraduates, more than 270 out of 350 elected to enrol in the course on this basis in more than 70 teams.

The second part is to provide access to the course resources and teaching materials to all Law School students.

The course includes a number of talks on different types of employability skills and careers in different areas of the law and encourages students to explore other careers to which a law degree from Durham opens doors.

If you would be interested in:

• talking about a particular employability skill or about a career in a particular area of law (or other careers to which a Law degree opens doors),
• providing interview practice opportunities for assessment days,
• providing presentation skills practice opportunities for assessment days, or
• providing support and guidance to students any other aspect of the process for applying for training contracts, pupillages or other career opportunities,

please Contact us by email and we will arrange for the appropriate person to contact you.

Similarly, if you are in a position to provide internships or work experience opportunities (whether in the UK or overseas) and which are not already advertised though the Careers & Enterprise Service, please email us and we will work out the best way to take this forward.

Being a member of the Association is one way in which the Association can help to connect you with the appropriate person.

Opportunities to teach or for research collaboration

You may be a leading practitioner in your field looking to pass on some knowledge and interest in your practice area to current undergraduate or LLM students or you may want to explore your specialist area both from a practitioner perspective and a more academic perspective.

Being a member of the Association is one way in which the Association can help you to explore this possibility further.

The Law School is starting to establish a successful track record of leading practitioners creating teaching modules for its students.

If this would be of interest to you, please Contact us.

Opportunities to provide prizes for modules

A number of alumni or their chambers or firms or professional associations provide prizes for the various of the Law School’s modules or for various achievements by students: Durham Law School prizes .

Those prizes can have a tremendous impact on students in helping them to achieve their career ambitions.

If this may be of interest, being a member of the Association is one way in which the Association can help you to explore this possibility further.

If you would like to discuss this further, please Contact us by email.

Opportunities to support future generations of students through scholarships or to help cover some of their costs

To help widen participation and access to a Law degree at Durham and potentially a career in Law a number of alumni or their  firms provide scholarships or other financial support to our students.

There is more here: https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/law/about-us/scholarships/

If you would like to explore this further, please Contact us.

Local Chapters

We welcome the establishment of local chapters of the Association, whether in the UK or overseas.

If you are interested in establishing a local chapter, please Contact us.

Where we are aware of an existing local network of Durham alumni with a connection through Law, we are in the process of contacting those networks to see if they would like to become a local chapter of the Association.

Other opportunities  

We envisage that the activities of the Association will develop and expand over time. They might, for example, involve fund raising from time to time for student scholarships or other student support. But that is very much for the future.  

If you see other opportunities for the Association and its members, where together we may be able to help the Law School and its students, please Contact us.

Contact Us

Contact us via email at: law.alumni.association@durham.ac.uk 

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