The Herbert Smith Freehills' Community Engagement Awards recognises and champions meaningful and high impact community engagement activity led by law students in India.
ABOUT
Herbert Smith Freehills engages with various Indian law schools, across several fronts. As a firm, we are also keen on contributing to the social space in India. We believe that volunteering helps to develop well-rounded individuals and helps law students develop the ability to communicate and work with a diverse range of people. This benefits the students' communities and also helps us identify the high calibre candidates who we aim to recruit.
The Herbert Smith Freehills' Community Engagement Awards Programme (the "Awards Programme") invites entries from individuals or teams of students across all law schools to showcase outstanding contributions they are making in their communities, whether through legal or non-legal work.
AWARDS CALENDAR
The Child Rights Clinic at V.M. Salgaocar College of Law are the winners of the Herbert Smith Freehills' Community Engagement Awards 2019.
The next edition of the Awards Programme will take place in 2022.
HOW TO ENTER
Entries may be submitted in the form of a short film (2-5 minutes in length), supported by additional information via the entry form. Our focus is on impact and therefore, there is less emphasis on other aspects such as the quality or presentation of the film. We would also like to hear your views on how the donation would make a difference to your chosen non-profit partner.
If you have any queries, please email [email protected]
Your entries will be assessed by the Awards Programme committee, and winners will be selected by a panel of members (including partners) of our India practice.
CRITERIA
Your entries will be judged on the basis of:
- impact
- sustainability
- innovation
- presentation
We are conscious that many applicants run, or are a part of initiatives, programmes or organisations which work on various projects. While it is not compulsory, we encourage you to focus on a particular project which you/your team have developed over the previous two years – a project which demonstrates excellent legal or non-legal work.
The judges will give particular credit to work which:
- creates sustainable impact; and
- has achieved, or appears likely to achieve its key objectives.
The scale of the projects may vary. We are looking for projects which effectively address the needs of a community in a sustainable manner.
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The project may, for instance, revolve around or be based on:
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If you are unsure whether your project/initiative fits the criteria, please feel free to contact us at [email protected].
PRIZES
We plan to announce the winners at a formal event in India. The event will be attended by the winners along with Herbert Smith Freehills' partners, employees and guests. This event will present an opportunity to draw the edition of the Awards Programme to a close, reflect on our achievements and present other opportunities for engagement with Herbert Smith Freehills.
Non-profit partners of the winners will be awarded a donation of £4,000.
OTHER INITIATIVES IN INDIA
As part of our wider commitment to India, we organise a number of international training programmes and educational events in association with leading law schools in India. Each such event provides an opportunity for Indian law students to interact with, and learn from, some of the world's leading lawyers and academics - including Edward Walker-Arnott, Chris Parsons, Justin D'Agostino, other partners at Herbert Smith Freehills, Professor Timothy Endicott and Professor James Edelman.
We also organise a national moot competition in Kolkata each year, run an international negotiation competition in Delhi and have organised lecture programmes in Jodhpur, Bangalore, Kolkata, Delhi and Hyderabad (often in conjunction with Oxford University).
Further in 2018, we entered into a formal collaboration with Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (to Legal Education) to provide financial, mentoring and pastoral support to a number of scholars.