Flick forward through this week’s issue to page 18. Sharp-eyed readers may spot a plug for the biggest night of the legal calendar. Yes, soon it will be time for The Lawyer Awards. The event has already broken new ground this year with its stellar judging panel. The luminaries that shared their market knowledge with our editorial team have helped ensure that this year’s prizes reflect the cream of the profession more than ever before.
But this year there is another innovation. Over the years the awards have raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for charity. The money raised has already reached £80,000 this year, although that is expected to easily hit six figures on the night. This year, for the first time ever, we are offering two readers the chance to see for themselves how that money is spent – and then report back to the entire legal market via The Lawyer.
This year’s charities are the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and the street children’s charity ChildHope. In partnership with The Lawyer, both charities have agreed to take one representative each on a site visit to one of their field operations. The chosen reporter will then write an in-depth feature, to be published in December.
The Cystic Fibrosis Trust is the UK’s only national charity dedicated to funding research into a cure for Cystic Fibrosis. The reporter will spend a day at a Cystic Fibrosis clinic and the laboratories where world-leading research into gene therapy is being developed.
The reporter chosen to cover ChildHope must be prepared to travel to Africa. As the charity aims to help children working and living on the streets, it is inevitably most active in some of the world’s poorest regions. The chosen representative will travel to northern Tanzania in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro to the Mkombozi Community Strengthening Programme. During the three-day visit, the reporter will monitor the activities in the care centre and may also have the opportunity to work with the staff in the project.
The Lawyer will foot the bill for both visits.
The successful applicants must be lawyers, have a flair for writing and be willing to submit to a background check. The Africa reporter will also undergo an induction with ChildHope to assess their suitability.
To apply, send a 250-word news story on a recent development at either charity, with a covering letter as to why you should be chosen, to matt.byrne@thelawyer.com by Friday 29 July. The successful pair will be announced in September, with the trips scheduled for October.
matt.byrne@thelawyer.com
