Students

1. Essays must be submitted by midnight GMT on Friday 1 May 2015 to treasurer@fsla.org.uk with ‘Essay 2015” in the subject line. No entries after this date will be accepted for the competition. The organisers accept no responsibility for delivery or for subsequent safekeeping of any essay entered for the competition.

2. The essay competition is open to all:

• Individuals who are studying as under- or post-graduate students in any legal discipline registered with a UK educational institution, or who completed such study on or after 1 March 2012;
• Trainee solicitors; and
• Pupil barristers.

3. Only one entry per person will be allowed.

4. The essay must be the sole creation and original work of that person. No previously published work will be accepted. Any form of plagiarism will result in immediate disqualification. All essays submitted will be closely checked for plagiarism.

5. The judges’ decisions on any awarding of any prize in the competition will be final and is not subject to any appeal. Essays will be judged on the quality of legal analysis, and not on judges’ views as to the merits of the wider issue.

6. Any essay submitted should conform to the following rules as to content, length and style:

• The essay should begin with a cover page stipulating the author’s full name, address, contact details (including email address), details of student, trainee solicitor or pupil barrister status including name of relevant organisation. No essay should thereafter contain the author’s name in either header or footer text within the essay.
• Essays should not be longer than 1,500 words including footnotes.
• Essays should contain page numbers.
• Any cases or statutes referred to in any essay should be fully cited the first time that they are used.

7. First prize is £1,500 and a six-week legal internship at the Financial Services Authority or with its successor the Financial Conduct Authority. Second prize is £500. Third prize is £250. FSLA reserves the right to substitute any prize for another within their absolute discretion without notice. FSLA reserves the right to withhold the award of any or all prizes offered if in their absolute discretion if no essay entered warrants the award of any or all prize(s). Taking up of the legal internship will be subject to FCA approval, which may require the provision of personal information to the FCA and agreement to undergo security checks. If the first prize-winner is unable or chooses not to take up the legal internship there will be no substitute for this prize and it may, at FSLA’s discretion, be offered to the other prize-winners in turn.

8. FSLA reserves the right to reproduce any or all of any essay entered for the competition. In reproducing any essay FSLA reserves the right to omit alter paraphrase or delete any part of that essay in their absolute discretion for any reason.

We are very happy to announce the winners of the 2014 student essay competition, the title of which was:

‘Pay day’ lenders charging 1000% interest are best controlled by competition not regulation: discuss.

First Place goes to Ryan Byrne, who is awarded a £1500 cash prize and a summer internship at the FCA. Congratulations to Ryan.

Second place goes to Kristine Kozicki and third place to Adam Grant, who are awarded £500 and £250 cash prizes respectively.

We received some very strong submissions this year so we would like to say thank you to everyone who entered, and congratulations to the winners.