Graham Turnbull essay prize winners announced

University of Oxford graduate Ian Clarke has emerged as the winner of the Graham Turnbull essay competition.

Clarke was called to the bar in 2005 and is currently working as an inhouse counsel at law firm Berrymans Lace Mawer.

The runner-up was Deirdre Malone a former student of Trinity College, Dublin. She was called to the bar in 2006 and is currently working at Liberty as an advice and information officer in the legal department.

The essay competition is run by the International Human Rights Committee of the Law Society and the Junior Lawyers Division and is named after Graham Turnbull, a British solicitor killed in Rwanda while working for the United Nations.

The years essay title was: Is human rights law relevant in combating poverty and social injustice?.

Law Society president Andrew Holroyd said the standard of the entries for the competition remained very high. Lawyers have a proud tradition of fighting for human rights across the world, improving access to justice and alleviating the suffering of people less fortunate than them. This competition is a very fitting legacy for Graham Turnbulls commitment to human rights work.

The first prize was 500 from the Graham Turnbull Memorial Fund and the runner-up received 250 worth of book tokens.