Essay competition offers FSA internships

The Financial Services Lawyers Association (FSLA) is offering an eight-week paid internship at the Financial Services Authority (FSA) as a prize in a student essay competition.

The placement, scheduled for the summer in 2008, will be within the regulators general council division and will be one of just two offered by the FSA each year.

Entrants will have to write 1,500 words on the topic Are bank charges fair? and submit it to essaycompetition@fsla.org.uk by 19 October 2007.

The judging panel includes Andrew Whittaker, general counsel at the FSA, and Eva Lomnicka, professor of law at Kings College, London. Both serve on the FSLAs advisory board.

While the first prize is the internship, those in second and third places will receive money, with the sums yet to be finalised.

Part of the reason for running the competition is to attract students to the FSLA, with the FSA and the law firms involved with the association keen to recruit trainees directly into financial services.

Board members are encouraging as many students as possible to sign up for the association at a reduced cost of 10, because they feel it offers a good means of introducing potential trainees to recruiters.

Corporate members of the FSLA are to hold a recruitment fair in the autumn.