Sponsorship

The Grand Final of the ICLR Open University Law Society Mooting Competition 2017 was held in the main courtroom at the UK Supreme Court, before Baroness Hale of Richmond DPSC.

As a charity, the ICLR is keen to support legal education and training in a number of ways.

For many years the ICLR has either run or sponsored mooting competitions (see below). We now make an annual Pupillage Award, and thanks to the generosity of our former reporter, the late Miss Busfield, we also offer an annual essay prize.

Details of these schemes can be found by navigating to the relevant sections below.

Mooting

The ICLR can provide financial support or donate prizes for student mooting competitions.

Please apply to Enquiries@iclr.co.uk

Recent winners

Brighton Law School, University of Brighton (2021)

Lauren Andrews
Honey Croxson
Glen White
Ella Smith

ICLR Pupillage Award

Applications are now closed. Watch this page for further updates on the award.

In recognition of the difficulties faced by many talented individuals during pupillage, the ICLR currently awards an annual bursary worth £13,000 in direct financial assistance to a pupil during the course of their 12-month pupillage in Chambers. The award was founded to mark ICLR’s 150th anniversary in 2015 and the first award was made the following year.

“I cannot thank the ICLR enough for all their help during my year of pupillage… Winning the award meant far more to me than just receiving its considerable financial support – it gave me the confidence to really embrace my change of profession and make the most of all the opportunities that pupillage offered me.”

– Tamasin Graham, winner of the ICLR Pupillage Award 2019

Previous Awards

2023: Helen Peden (Garden Court North)

2022: Lily Belfer (187 Chambers)

2021: Matt Ward (187 Fleet Street)

2020: No competition took place due to COVID-19

2019: Tamasin Graham (Lamb Building)

2018: Daniel Wand (4 King’s Bench Walk)

2017: Ben Haseldine (4 King’s Bench Walk)

2016: Sophia Stapleton (2 Dr Johnson’s Building)

The Application Process

The ICLR Pupillage Award involves three key steps before selecting a winning candidate.

Initial application round
- The first step in the application process is to complete the application form.
- The form asks for information about your finances and why you feel you need financial assistance to support you during pupillage.
- We believe that by virtue of having secured pupillage, all candidates will have passed a rigorous interview process and have an excellent academic background. Accordingly, we will not ask you to provide us with a CV.
- We ask you to supply two short pieces of writing in order to demonstrate your intellectual merit.
- We also ask you for the details of a referee. We may contact your referee if we require more information from you.
Shortlisting and headnote drafting exercise
- Based on the forms submitted by applicants, we will draw up a shortlist of six candidates.
- The shortlisted candidates will then be asked to write a headnote based on an unreported judgement that we will supply. We expect all candidates to have a solid understanding of the content and structure of a law report.
Selecting the final winner
- The final selection of the winning candidate will be made by the judging panel: Margaret Bowron QC, Mr Justice Roth and Brendan Wright (Editor, ICLR).
- The final decision will be based on a combined evaluation of the headnote and the short written pieces supplied in the initial application round.
- The winning candidate will be notified in early August.

The Busfield Essay Prize

This is an annual prize for an essay, awarded to a student at the City Law School.

Past Winners

2022 – Charlie Wall
2021 – Mark Blundell
2020 – Beth Hibbert
2019 – William Bordell
2018 – Daniel Judd
2017 – Sophie Clayton
2016 – Matthew Rees
2015 – Dr George Molyneaux
2014 – David Gregory
2013 – Ryan Lim
2012 – David Peter
2010 – Emma Fenn
2009 – Zizhen Yang
2008 – Charlotte Cooke
2007 – Darshini Manraj

A brief biography of Miss K. Busfield

Kathleen Nancy Busfield was born in 1909. She was the daughter of a commercial traveller who died while she was still a child. She and her brother were sent to the Commercial Travellers’ School in Hatch End. After she left school she qualified as a chartered secretary, and she worked as a company secretary until about 1960, when she decided to read for the Bar. She was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1963 and admitted ad eundem by Lincoln’s Inn in 1965, where she was in chambers at 5 New Square.

She began reporting for the ICLR in 1965 and was appointed to the Chancery Division in 1966. She continued to report in the Chancery courts until her retirement (or, as she put it, her “change of status”) in 1996 at the age of 87.

She was fiercely independent and a very private person, although she had many interests outside the law, prominent among which was her interest in her Huguenot ancestry and her membership of the Huguenot Society, of which she was a committee member for many years. She was held in great affection by her colleagues at the ICLR, and maintained her contact with them until her death in 2006 at the age of 97.

The photograph used on this page has been taken from a genealogical website about Miss Busfield’s family history.