Read the winning essays from previous years

The “Tesco law” legal reforms will enable the legal profession to compete better in the new global legal market, Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, said last week. The Legal Services Act 2007 will promote competition and increase consumer choice, he told guests at The Times/One Essex Court Law Awards dinner in London. But more important, the measures would enable firms to position themselves in the international legal market.

He told the 300 lawyers and judges at the dinner at Lincoln’s Inn that the turnover in the legal sector was £23.3 billion, more than double that in 1997.

“And we are the second-biggest exporter of legal services in the world — our exports grew to £2.6 billion in 2006. The UK’s legal profession is one of the finest in the world. The expertise, the professionalism, the dedication to delivering justice, is unrivalled.”

Mr Straw, who led the judging panel for this year’s awards, said that the global context of the legal market was recognised by all the finalists in the competition. He added: “To a significant extent the public define their view of our legal system by those who promote it. And so it is essential that we invest in the future of the profession.”

The essay title, In the bank or under the bed: should the law protect your money?, was “prescient” Mr Straw noted — although it had meant that he and the fellow judges had to read through “12,000 not altogether favourable words which comment on the Government’s response to Northern Rock last autumn”.

More than £10,000 worth of prizes were presented to the six finalists at the dinner hosted by the chambers of Lord Grabiner, QC, at One Essex Court, which has run the competition with The Times for 13 years.

First prize of £3,500 went to Ben Zurawel, 23, who is studying the graduate diploma in law at BPP Law School; second prize of £2,500 to Fraser Campbell, 25, a trainee at Clifford Chance; and third prize of £1,500 to Peter Head, 27, who is studying for the Bar Vocational Course at the College of Law.

The runners-up, who each won £1,000, were: Robert Grindrod, 44, a graduate diploma in law student at Nottingham Trent University; Christopher Lillywhite, 23, a Legal Practice Course student at BPP Law School in Holborn; and Tom Xavier, 32, a law degree student at the Open University.

The essays were judged by a panel chaired by Mr Straw, Lord Grabiner, QC, Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, the law lord, Christopher McKane, deputy managing editor, The Times; and Edmund Nourse, a barrister at One Essex Court.

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