Extracurriculars at King’s
I’m finishing my blog for LLM Guide with two back-to-back posts. This one is my take on some extracurricular activities at King’s. Next post deals with my overall experience on King’s LLM.
Societies are a big thing at King’s — at least in normal years. They are a good way to meet new people. There are hundreds of societies ranging from activity and sports groups to academic ones. The LLM even has a dedicated society: the Postgraduate Law Society. This year there wasn’t much activity. I was expecting more socials or networking events. But if you feel like making the LLM year amazing for everyone and gaining some leadership experience, you can apply for the Executive Committee. They always look for incoming LLM students around the summer to take up positions.
There are many other volunteering opportunities. I participated in some brainstorming sessions for King’s Climate Action Network, which was set up by King’s Sustainability Team. It is part of King’s effort to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2025. I was on the group for responsible investing. Apart from my contributions about ESG investing, I also learned a lot about how universities manage endowments. The biggest achievement this year was full divestment from fossil fuel investments.
I did some law review work for King’s Student Law Review. I didn’t find this overly exciting. But it’s a good way to keep in touch with ongoing legal developments and to learn to be critical of legal writings. I mostly learned to give constructive and useful feedback.
I’m currently still volunteering with the Human Rights and Environment Clinic at King’s Legal Clinic. I found this a good way to get out of my comfort zone and apply some of the legal skills I’ve learned in law school to newer topics, such as the law surrounding sustainability and climate change. There is also a general advice clinic and other specialist clinics, for example on IP law. Solicitors supervise the clinics and, in some cases, there is involvement of barristers and King’s own academic staff.
LLM students can participate in moot court competitions and represent King’s. I didn’t do this because the time commitment can get quite intense around deadlines.
More academically, there is the possibility of auditing an additional LLM module, taking a language course at the Modern Language Centre or participating in King’s-wide courses. I followed the Associateship of King’s College and Inside Art and Science courses, which didn’t require a lot of commitment but were nonetheless academically very enriching.
My tip for incoming LLM students is to keep a close eye on newsletters and have a look around King’s and the KCLSU’s website. Some extracurricular opportunities are not always very actively advertised or get lost in large amount of information you get.
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