Emma is currently doing her pupillage at 30 Park Place in Cardiff. Earlier this month she was presented with her certificate by the award judges, Mr Justice Roth, President of the Competition Appeal Tribunal (where the reception was held), Margaret Bowron KC, of 1 Crown Office Row, and Brendan Wright, Editor of the Law Reports.

The picture in the background is a reproduction of a portrait of Lord Mansfield CJ.

Applications for the award are subject to two criteria: financial need and merit. Applicants have to write two short essays and, if and when shortlisted, a headnote for a Weekly Law Report based on an unreported transcript that we supply. Emma was asked to write a headnote for BR v SN [2024] EWHC 1512 (Fam) (which has since been reported by ICLR as [2024] 1 WLR 5018). She also wrote about the influential recent case of Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council [2023] EWCA Civ 1416; [2024] 1 WLR 3827, which concerns the court’s power to stay proceedings to encourage or require the parties first to engage in alternative dispute resolution.

On a related topic, she won the Bar Council’s Law Reform Essay Competition 2022, sponsored by City Law School, University of London, with ‘Crossing the Constitutional Rubicon: why mediation should be compulsory in all civil disputes’.

Emma read law at Cardiff University and at the Inns of Court College of Advocacy, and worked as a caseworker for Advocate before beginning her pupillage in September 2024.