ACTIVITY REPORT ELSA United Kingdom Spring 2018

GENERAL ELSA UK 2017/2018 Coach

• Deniz Hatemi Terms

• 1st August – 31st July Current National Board

President Ethan Dodd Secretary General Wing Ng Treasurer Kieran Brehany Vice President for Marketing Michael Kest Vice President for Academic Activities Francesca Sella Vice President for Seminars & Conferences Benedetta Veneruso Vice President for STEP Meeri Toivanen Vice President for Moot Court Competitions Gertrud Metsa

Incoming National Board President Stela Negran Secretary General TBC Treasurer Hendrik Jónsson

Vice President for Marketing Shoshana Leibovici Vice President for Academic Activities Nikiana Lambert Vice President for Seminars & Conferences Rachel Yafet Vice President for STEP Meeri Toivanen Vice President for Moot Court Competitions Sarah Ikast Kristoffersen

Directors BEE Director for External Affairs Callum Hirst IM Director for Internal Management Ana Neamtu AA Director for SCELR Scott Davidson AA Director for Legal Research Groups N/A MCC Director for Moot Court Competition N/A MKT Director for Marketing Hendrik Jonsson MKT Director for Creative Design Zuzanna Grodzka S&C Director for Law Schools Hendrik Jonsson S&C Director for Study Visits N/A STEP Director for STEP Shoshana Leibovici STEP Director for STEP Dilan Yaku

National Council Meeting • XVIII NCM Stirling

Next National Council Meeting

• XVIII NCM Bristol Local Groups

• ELSA Aberdeen (OBS) • ELSA Bristol • ELSA Essex • ELSA Exeter • ELSA King’s College London

(OBS) • ELSA Kent • ELSA Lancaster (OBS) • ELSA Leicester

• ELSA LSE • ELSA Middlesex (OBS) • ELSA Nottingham • ELSA Queen Mary • ELSA Reading (OBS) • ELSA Sheffield • ELSA Stirling • ELSA UCL (OBS) • ELSA Westminster

Contact

• secgen@uk.elsa.org

Activity Report

Ethan Dodd President

BOARD MANAGEMENT • Holding regular board meetings to maintain regular communication. • Having individual meetings where necessary to ensure every position is running smoothly. • In the process of moving work over to Slack. • Liaising closely with the Secretary General for NCM preparation and statutory

amendments. • Liaised with the Treasurer to ensure a bank account was opened and available for

international events, such as the ICM. • Introduced the finger rules to Skype meetings to keep things efficient. • Established a coaching system for Local Groups.

EXTERNAL RELATIONS • Kept a database of approached sponsors by both Local Groups and the National Board • In talks with BPP Law School and University of Law for a national membership programme

for students of their programmes. • In contact with various firms for a variety of potential partnerships. • Secured Lady Hale, President of the UK’s Supreme Court, as our patron. • Researching sponsorship options for the first Moot Court Competition on national level to

be launched in the following term. • Answering queries from ELSA groups outside the UK seeking approvals for

speaker/institution contacting. • Assisted in organising a number of Study Visits. • In contact with a number of other National Groups for a variety of reasons, for example,

searches for linguistic editors for their projects. • Established a coaching system for coaching groups • Attended the ICM, forming strong relationships with ELSA Iceland, ELSA Portugal, ELSA

Denmark and ELSA Germany. • Worked towards registering ELSA UK as a charity and looked into the various possible

routes to that end.

EXPANSION • Facilitated the observership applications of ELSA Bristol, ELSA LSE and ELSA UCL,

ELSA KCL. • Assisted in helping to set up ELSA Middlesex. • Worked on securing a nationwide membership for BPP and ULaw students • Held meetings with Local Groups answering queries on various topics, such as observer

applications and NCM hosts. • Discussed the possibility of starting ELSA groups with staff and students at the University

of Cardiff, University of Leeds, University of Birmingham and University of Edinburgh.

Activity Report

Wing Ng Internal Management

PROJECTS

Contact Details • ELSA UK has always had an issue with gaining contact details from local groups, hence

there has been a lot of miscommunication. This year I asked the local groups to make unified emails for their national board, although we may be adopting a new system that ELSA International offers, this is already proving to work more effectively than it did last year. I created a word document that consists of each local group and their respective local officers and split them into the following positions in an ELSA board so that the other National Board members can contact their local group officers with ease. This has proved itself to be successful and local groups have started responding more.

One Year Operational Plan • This was completed, regrettably later than it was supposed to be submitted, but as soon as

I was made aware to do this, I immediately began working on it, however I struggled to attain another National Member’s contribution until much after the deadline. This is now submitted to ELSA International.

State of the Network Enquiry • I ensured that this was completed on time so that the ELSA UK delegation to ICM Sarajevo

was successfully completed. Although the process was strenuous and took a lot longer than expected, it was nevertheless completed with every national board member’s contribution. I have saved a sample file for my successor so in the future they will have some form of template or idea when they need to fill this in before the ICM. This was again completed in ahead of ICM Lviv in April.

Call for Directors • The call for directors was sent out last year and so far, every board member has managed

to recruit an director to help them with my workload. I appointed Ana Neamtu who had helped with the construction of the ELSA UK newsletter.

IM Training and Coaching • There has been contact to local groups and local Secretary Generals regarding coaching.

Firstly, I have contacted the local groups that I am coaching for, some failed to respond however there is certainty that they have received this, therefore I am on standby if they require my help and assistance. In regard to internal management training, I am yet to create an IMers group on Facebook, but there is a plan to do this and I have already

touched based with all of my secretary generals on the local level. Some local officers have already got in touch with myself for statute interpretation or help therefore this system is also working very well in the IM sector.

ELSA Alumni • This a new project that my predecessor Nikki had begun; however, this was continued this

year and decided to revamp this system. There was a lot of interest in previous ELSA UK boards, therefore there is a sufficient small database to begin with. We are yet to fully confirm as to the rights, benefits and opportunities that distinguishes between an ordinary member (whether through local groups or as an individual member) and alumni member. We may be having some alumni members coming to future NCMs to chair or to take part in, overall, a very successful project.

Individual Memberships • Individual memberships are again a new initiative this year. I am yet to determine the exact

extent of the memberships but there is high interest for this and this will be continued and further promoted when it is possible to potential members. The contacts have already been added to our membership database as well as their emails so that the national board are able to contact the local groups and individual members with ease.

Local Group Handouts • I am already beginning to reconstruct and recreate the local group handout so that this can

be used as a visual and electronic aid for existing and new local groups. I have looked at the old local group handout however I felt that the graphics, design and content needed to be updated, therefore this is still an ongoing project. The new version will be released to local groups at the NCM and myself and other members of the NB will gather their views on it and see if they like it, if they are happy with the handout then it will be released for local groups to use.

Preparation for my Successor – in aid for transition next year • Although this is seemingly early in my term of office, but I have begun to take note and

recorded all the challenges and tasks that needs to be completed during the one year in office. I received a good transition last year from my predecessor but as the role of the Secretary General is very comprehensive and having some form of guideline or book will incredibly benefit my successor as I was, for an extensive period of time, very confused and unsure as to what I should do or where I would find certain materials to do certain tasks.

Activity Report

Kieran Brehany Financial Management

GENERAL Community Bank Account • I am already beginning to reconstruct and recreate the local group handout so that this can

be used as a visual and electronic aid for existing and new local groups. I have looked at the old local group handout however I felt that the graphics, design and content needed to be updated, therefore this is still an ongoing project. The new version will be released to local groups at the NCM and myself and other members of the NB will gather their views on it and see if they like it, if they are happy with the handout then it will be released for local groups to use.

Invoicing • I have sent out invoices for the ELSA UK Local Group membership. I have done this quite

early as I wanted all local groups to have paid before the NCM this year. In order to make the process more efficient, local groups are paying into a bank account this year rather than going through PayPal, so there will be no unnecessary charges, and this also eliminates the potential issue of Student Union’s complaining about payment methods which has happened in the past.

Processing Payments • I have processed payments that I have received from local groups and created receipts for

record. In order to highlight the transparency of the process, bank statements will be made available at all times and all receipts and documents will be passed onto the incumbent treasurer next year.

EDF Payment • I have paid ELSA UK’s EDF contribution payment. I ensured that it was paid promptly in

order to show ELSA UK meeting all our obligations. NCM • Help set up payment for the ELSA UK NCM. This included making a bank account

available, so payment could be received and processed securely and that suppliers and venues can be paid promptly.

Communication • Talk to a local group SU to sort out a late payments of last year’s membership fee. This has

so far been a successful communication and the process has started for this payment to be made now. Furthermore, I have answered any questions and queries from Local Group treasurers regarding payment and issues and ideas for the year ahead.

Final Comments • This year has been a positive year for ELSA UK, with the addition of three new observer

groups. This has meant them being added into the treasury network and also helping them to set up their membership payments. This hasn’t been an easy task with ELSA UK needing to help with regards to SU’s. However, I am pleased to say that they have all developed greatly and are all set to make their full payments within the next month.

• There has been some intervention needed with pre-existing full membership groups within the network, but this has mostly not been a problem as our treasurers have been very responsive. I am also currently dealing with payments for the upcoming NCM and have been working closely with ELSA Stirling to facilitate the bills that needs paying.

• Soon, I will be looking into the accounts and putting the money that needs to be paid for ELSA UK’s membership aside as well as dealing with any outstanding financial obligations (e.g. reimbursing NB members for expenses accrued during the year). Lastly, I and Wing, our Secretary General, have worked hard to boost the individual memberships and we are glad that we have been able to achieve this. This in turn has helped to boost our income for the year. It has been an absolute pleasure working with the NB and IB this year on financial matters.

Activity Report

Michael Kest Vice President of Marketing

GENERAL • Actively managing ELSA UK’s social media accounts. • Promoting international and national events. • Supervising CI compliance throughout the network • Supporting all board members. • Sharing national and international material on social media and via email. Promoting events

throughout the network.

WEBSITE • Building new ELSA UK website from scratch. This includes general information, individual

local group sub-pages, a sponsorship section, event calendar, ELSA UK Officers Page and eventually a direct-payment platform.

• Planning of additional features including a blog and newsletter tab • Historical national board section as well as Alumni section

CREATIVE • Promotional materials for AMICUS Essay Competition • Promotional materials for Autumn and Spring NCM’s • ELSA UK Individual Membership Drive • ELSA UK Awards

OTHERS • Representing ELSA UK at Autumn ICM Sarajevo and Spring ICM Lviv

Activity Report

Francesca Sella Vice President of Academic Activities

THE ELSA AMICUS PRIZE

• I worked alongside Michael (Marketing) to push marketing as soon as we launched the competition on the 11th October 2017.

• I contacted Amicus at the beginning of my term, they confirmed they were happy to be our partner again this year.

• I emailed over 50 UK universities promoting the competition. • I posted the updates in the Academic Activities group. • I contacted a number of academics and recruited three judges: Dr Angelika Reichstein,

Lecturer in Constitutional & Administrative Law at the University of East Anglia, Dr Yvonne McDermott Rees, Associate Professor of Law at Swansea University and Samuel White, PhD candidate at the University of Dundee and director of the Scottish Legal Action Group;

• I finalised the essay title and obtained Amicus approval; • The deadline was set for 7th December and after that, I sent all the submission to the three

judges for the first stage of review. • I have contacted Oxford University Press and they confirmed they were be happy to offer

a prize for the runner up essay. • As soon as the first stage of review was completed, I shortlisted the top three entries based

on the score and forwarded them onto Amicus LJ for the final stage of judging by Mark George QC (currently in progress);

• The winner will be announced in March, I will forward the winner and runner up details to Amicus and prepare certificated to be signed and sent to the winners.

STUDENT COMPARATIVE AND EUROPEAN LAW REVIEW • Throughout the months of November and December, I advertised the editor’s posts. • I finally appointed a full editorial board (5 editors) as well as a Creative Director (in charge

of marketing) and a Director (in charge of the management of the editorial board). • I worked alongside the Creative Director to update marketing materials from last year. • I had a skype call with all the editors and directors prior to the launch to confirm marketing

strategy and timeline of this project. • I contacted the Sheffield Centre for International and European Law, who confirmed they

are happy to be our academic partners again. • I secured a foreword from the Director of Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA). • Having received some submissions, we are currently in the process of re-advertising the

initiative.

• Deadline is currently set for 30th March, although it may need to be extended.

LOCALGROUPS • After the NCM in Exeter, I had a skype call with a number of local AAs, outlining all the

possible AA project they can offer on a local level. • I focused on working alongside initiative groups (mainly ELSA Bristol and ELSA LSE),

offering guidance and support. • I have offered regular updates on ELSA UK AA projects to local AAs, using the Facebook

group I created.

Activity Report

Gertrud Metsa Moot Court Competitions

ESTABLISHING A NATIONAL MOOT COURT COMPETITION • Putting together a timeline in order to help with the planning and organising of the event. • Research of potential technical, academic and financial partners to determine if the

competition has interest and thus can be continual. • Drafting a proposal for possible sponsors and partners. • Selection of the topic for the Moot Court Competition. • Establishing relations with the Vice President for Moot Court Competitions at ELSA

International to gain more insight into the competition. • Contacting Vice Presidents for Moot Court Competitions on local levels to offer help and

guidance on their work and to make sure the whole network is working for a common goal. • Establishing a reputation for ELSA UK Moot Court Competitions on all levels of the

organisation so that in the future all local groups can and want to elect a Vice President for Moot Court Competitions.

UPDATES SINCE NCM EXETER • Proposal has been drafted in collaboration with the VP for Marketing. • Narrowing down the possible partners and/or sponsors for the event. • Contacting partners and/or sponsors through multiple platforms. • Decision to push the competition into the next academic year due to lack of interest and

support from possible partners and sponsors. • Collaboration with ELSA local groups in France and Germany to organise a Moot Court

Competition in France. • Helping local groups in regard to International Mooting Competitions: Being the main

contact person for clarifications and guidance. • Working closely with the VP MCC and VP AA for ELSA International to gather information

about Moot Court Competitions and establish a name for ELSA UK within the Mooting community.

Activity Report

Benedetta Veneruso Development of the S&C Area

GENERAL Development of the S&C Area • Creation of a Facebook group where all the S&Cers can share their plans for the year. • Collection of feedback on the activities of the previous year. • Skype meetings with S&Cers all over the country. • Appointment of a Director for Law Schools and a Director for Study Visits. • Coaching ELSA Nottingham and ELSA Leicester through the coaching system. • Creation of internet pools with all the activities covered under S&C, in order to identify

which activities are of main interest for local groups in the UK. • Helped a member of a local group who was accepted for a delegation to get in contact

with the IB and assisted her during her preparation • Helped a member of a local group who participated in a Summer Law School in another

country cope with a bad experience, contacting the President of their NB and the head of OC asking for clarification and a letter of apologies, reassuring our local member about the professionalism of ELSA SLC and reliability of their organisers

• Advertised conferences hosted by ELSA groups outside the UK to increase awareness of opportunities abroad.

• Assisting local groups in finding potential partners for study visits. • Set an OC for the organisation of the first ELSA UK Christmas Cocktail. • Helped local groups verifying the status of potential partners. • Worked with Marketing to promote the activities of ELSA UK in the area of S&C. • Participated in the International Council Meeting Sarajevo 2017, and Stirling 2018, tailored

to the needs of the local groups. • Promote the IFP programme and Webinars • Providing support for ELSA LSE first conference on Energy Law during the IFP programme. • During the Spring NCM, I started a survey about the effectiveness and outcome of local

group projects in order to identify which activities worked within the network and how to support those projects which received less attention from members. The data from the survey will be collected and published at the end of the year and will help local groups and future VP S&Cs and hopefully provide help and assistance so that they can have a smooth and efficient transition in becoming the new VP S&C.

ELSA Day • Successful advertisement of ELSA Day throughout ELSA UK and directly to local groups

through Facebook and emails. • Suggested local groups to organise a “Pub Talk” instead of a university lecture, as an

analysis of last year’s feedback and underlined the low number of attendants, possibly due to the fact that UK students are used to attending lectures and seminars on a daily basis in their academic life. Therefore, a new format like a Pub Talk, which is increasingly getting popular in the UK’s universities, might help fill this gap.

• Brainstorming with the local groups on “What do we mean for Justice Beyond Borders?”, in order to clarify the topic of this year’s ELSA Day.

• Collecting all the material from the local group which organised events for the ELSA Day, in order to use it to market the ELSA Day in the following years, promoting and recognising the efforts of local groups.

Winter/Summer Law Schools • Checking with the IB with the deadlines for application for summer law schools and

updating the local groups interested in submitting their proposals. • Appointed a Director for Law School who assisted ELSA Kent in writing their proposal for

the second edition of the SLS on Migration Law, and report to the national board. • Reviewed the feedbacks received by the participants in the first edition of the SLS on

Migration Law at ELSA Kent, analysing potential issues to correct in this year’s proposal. • Organising meetings between the directors of LS appointed by ELSA UK and the Head of

the OC of local groups interested in organising a SLS. • Encouraged the local groups to apply and advertise winter schools. • Supported ELSA Aberdeen in their proposal for a SLS on Energy Law. • Acting as a consultant for ELSA Aberdeen in the initial proposal of a conference in Scotland. • Participating in ELSA International steering group on Law Schools. • Chaired the workshops dedicated to Seminars & Conferences during the International

Council Meeting (ICM) Sarajevo. • Facilitated the workshops during the ICM by organising groups and helping them to write

their proposals. • Helped a member of a local group who participated in a Summer Law School in another

country cope with a negative experience and contacting the President of the NB and the Head of OC seeking for clarification and a letter of apology and reassuring our local member about the professionality of ELSA SLC and reliability of their organisers.

Delegations • Helped a member of a local group who was accepted for a delegation to get in contact

with the IB and assisted her during her preparation. • Dedicated a specific workshop on delegations, applications and finances. • Collected views and potential questions of local groups in order to bring to the attention

of ELSA International’s Delegation team. • Requested ELSA International to provide a video which would answer all the questions of

the local groups.

• Advertising open calls for delegations. Webinar • Contacted relevant academics and legal practitioner to organise a webinar. Study Visit to Strasbourg • Requested permission from ELSA International to visit the Council of Europe. • Applied for a visit to the ECHR and European Parliament. • Set up an organising committee that will help organise the visit.

Activity Report

Meeri Toivanen Vice President of STEP

GENERAL

• The past five months since the autumn NCM in Exeter have been exciting and furthering objectives of STEP in the UK on both national and local levels. As outlined the OYOP 2017/2018, one of the main targets of STEP this year was the creation of a coherent national network consisting of local STEP Directors furthering the fantastic STEP agenda within their respective geographic areas.

• The year briefly in numbers: o 15 incoming STEP trainees o 28 outgoing STEP applications, out of which 7 have so far resulted in an offer o 2 STEP Directors – Director for Employer Hunting (Shoshana Leibovici, ELSA

QMUL), Director for Student Employer (Dilan Yakut, ELSA Leicester)

THE INTERNATIONAL STEP NETWORK AND PERSONAL TRAINING

• Active and inspiring contract has been maintained with the whole ELSA STEP network

through our common Facebook group, email thread and Slack workspace. • I participated as a member of the ELSA UK delegation at the autumn ICM in Sarajevo in

the STEP workshops and trainings, gaining valuable skills to take home. • I created and maintained good working relations with the Vice President of STEP of ELSA

International, Aneta Korcova, and kept her up to date with the developments in the UK with respect to employer hunting, outgoing applications and the reception of STEP trainees.

• I have maintained active contact with my STEP coach, Essi Salmela, throughout the year. I had a skype call with her in the autumn, and ever since regularly updated her.

• During her visit in London, I had the opportunity to discuss the President of ELSA Ireland about the STEP cooperation between the UK and Iceland in the future. These talks have since started taking a more concrete shape, as ELSA Iceland will contact Icelandic employers based in the UK.

• Furthermore, during my visits to attend ELSA events this term in Warsaw, Paris and Naples, I had the opportunity to discuss with the respective representatives about STEP and share from our experiences.

THE NATION-WIDE STEP NETWORK OF ELSA UK

• All local STEP Directors have been coached into their respective roles. In the beginning of

the term, I organised Skype calls for this purpose almost with everyone; the rest have been trained into their role through the exchange of briefing materials through email.

• I had the pleasure to meet a few STEP Directors at the Autumn NCM in Exeter where I ran an interactive workshop about strategic planning around STEP’s core areas.

• I have been sending regular emails to all STEP Directors throughout the year reminding about important deadlines, clarifying some information and sharing updates generally.

• I created in the beginning of the term Facebook group for all STEP Directors, where area updates, useful materials and ideas are shared. The idea of the group was to contribute towards a greater team spirit and coherence between the STEPpers across the UK.

• The STEP network has access to an Excel sheet on which everyone has been expected to list their plans for employer hunt and look for inspiration, and to various other documents, e.g. a UK-tailored email template.

• With the exception of few local groups, the responsiveness of the local STEP Directors to the active outreach from the national level has fallen short of expectations. However, STEP Directors from the following Local Groups deserve recognition for their activity and efforts to further the common goals in the UK:

o Kent o Lancaster o Leicester – submitted most of the outgoing STEP applications during the first cycle o LSE SU – manifested persistence and constructive efforts in their employer hunt

strategy o Nottingham o Queen Mary University London - secured two new STEP employers (legal advice

centres in London) o Stirling

EMPLOYER HUNT • The STEP Directors have demonstrated good plans for approaching employers in their

respective areas during both cycles. A consensus has been established that the focus is not on big law firms.

• The STEP Directors assumed the main responsibility for contacting the potential employers listed in their plans, after I had screened their plans and draft emails. These potential employers include inter alia legal clinics, law faculties, PhD researchers, small/medium law firms, organisations and research centres.

• I passed a new STEP employer, Caselex to ELSA Belgium during the first cycle. • I created and maintained an Excel sheet to which all STEP Directors have access, listing the

potential employers to approach.

RECEPTION OF THE INCOMING STEP TRAINEES

• At the start of the term, there had been four trainees in London, from whom I received excellent feedback for ensuring that they felt welcomed and comfortable during their stay.

• I have been the main contact person between the 15 incoming STEP trainees (three each month) and the VP STEP of ELSA International. Thereby, I have been taking care that the necessary documents are duly and promptly exchanged between the trainees and ELSA International, the trainees’ questions are properly answered, and the STEP employer is kept informed about any possible changes.

• I coordinated the creation of a Facebook group for all the incoming STEP trainees and the STEP Directors based in London, on which information about upcoming events or practical matters can easily be exchanged.

• So far, I have had the pleasure to meet in person the first patch of three trainees in London.

ELSA UK’S EMPLOYER WEBSITE

• During the Autumn ICM in Sarajevo, I was inspired by ELSA Poland and Czech Republic’s respective websites listing numerous employers in the legal sector and the vacancies they are offering to ELSA members. The vacancies are offered outside of STEP but negotiated by the respective STEP officers, and it offers a substantial source of sponsorship to the whole national network.

• I was in contact with the Vice President for STEP of ELSA Poland in the aftermath of the ICM, and he shared with me valuable information about their experiences with the website.

• Currently the website is on hold in the UK, but as soon as we have the ELSA UK website functioning again, I am persistent to start with this project.