New College Law Society Dinner, Saturday 26 April 2025
The New College Law Society warmly invites New College Old Members who read law or work in the legal profession to its next annual dinner, which will take place on Saturday 26th April 2025 at New College.
The dinner is the highlight of the Society's social calendar and offers Old Members a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with friends as well as the chance to meet other Old Members and current students who have an interest in the law and law related careers.
The event will begin with the annual New College Law Society Prize Moot at 4:45pm in the McGregor Matthews Room, which is optional to attend, followed by a drinks reception in the Founder's Library at 6:30pm and a three-course dinner in Hall. As is tradition, dinner will be followed by a speech from a guest of honour, who this year will be Baroness Shami Chakrabarti. As a Member of The House of Lords, Barrister, former Shadow Attorney-General, former Director of Liberty and prominent human rights advocate, we are sure Baroness Chakrabarti will give a stimulating and thought provoking after dinner speech.
Tickets are available from the University of Oxford Online Store payment link, at a cost of £80 per person. All Old Members are welcome to book one guest ticket. The dress code for the dinner is black-tie.
The New College Law Society hopes to see you in April.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sharmishta Chakrabarti, Baroness Chakrabarti CBE PC (born 16 June 1969) is a British politician, barrister, and human rights activist. A member of the Labour Party, she served as the director of Liberty, a major advocacy group which promotes civil liberties and human rights, from 2003 to 2016. From 2016 to 2020, she served as Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales.
Chakrabarti was born in the London Borough of Harrow, and studied law at the London School of Economics. After graduating, she was called to the Bar and then worked as an in-house legal counsel for the Home Office. When she was the director of Liberty, she campaigned against what Liberty considered "excessive" anti-terror legislation. In this role, she frequently contributed to BBC Radio 4 and various newspapers, and was described in The Times as "probably the most effective public affairs lobbyist of the past 20 years". She was one of the panel members of the Leveson Inquiry into press standards throughout 2011 and 2012. Between 2014 and 2017, she served as Chancellor of the University of Essex.
In August 2016, Chakrabarti was made a life peer in the Prime Minister's Resignation Honours.
Thank you for your support
Whether or not you are able to attend the dinner, contributions to the New College Law Society would be greatly appreciated. As well as offering Old Members the opportunity to engage with New College's legal community through the annual dinner, the Society runs a busy calendar of events for students who wish to learn about legal careers and develop their legal skills. These vary from year to year, but will typically include informative talks about cutting edge legal issues from guest speakers, career focussed discussions with legal professionals and mooting education and support. They also help to integrate new students into New College's legal community and offer support to law students who are sitting exams.
While the society is run on a voluntary basis by a dedicated committee of law students, law tutors and Old Members, they inevitably incur various expenses, including travel costs, when organising these events and would greatly appreciate any support you can offer to help offset these and to cover the general expenses of the society. If you wish to make a one off gift or provide regular support please complete the donation form and return it to The Development Office, New College, Oxford OX1 3BN.
They are extremely grateful to those Old Members who currently contribute; thank you for your continued support.
The NCLS President, Alex Guillen, and his committee, look forward to seeing many of you in April. Should you have any questions, please contact him through the New College Development Office on oldmembers@new.ox.ac.uk
