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Development Programme

Oxford Law’s development programme works actively with our partners to ensure excellent standards in education, to pursue new initiatives, and to cover broader reaches of scholarship.

 

St Cross Building - home of the Law Faculty

Our benefactors contribute significantly to the quality and success of legal education in Oxford.

By attracting donations from leading firms, chambers, trusts, foundations and individuals, Oxford Law’s development programme works actively with our partners to ensure excellent standards in education, to pursue new initiatives and to cover broader reaches of scholarship. Your support allows us to thrive in a challenging environment and remain a world-class and globally competitive faculty. We are consistently ranked amongst the top five universities for law globally and consequently we attract the highest calibre students from around the world. (Enrolled students in the academic year 2017-2018 came from 67 countries.) Our global network of benefactors contributes approximately £2 million per annum to Faculty revenue of about £13.5 million.

 

Clifford Chance Associate Professor of Law and Finance, Kristin van Zweiten

 

Named Posts

The naming of academic posts in honour of benefactors is in recognition of our gratitude for major support of the study of Law in Oxford, and reflects the contribution of a donor to particular areas of study in the Faculty of Law.

  • The Clifford Chance Associate Professor in Law and Finance is Kristin Van Zwieten.
  • Herbert Smith Freehills has renewed five-year funding Professor of English Private Law with Robert Stevens holding the post.
  • The Pinsent Masons Chair of Taxation Law, Judith Freedman, heads the MSc in Law and Taxation and is also Director of Legal Research in the University of Oxford Centre for Business Taxation.
  • The Slaughter and May Professor of Competition Law, Ariel Ezrachi, is also the Director of the University of Oxford Centre for Competition Law and Policy. Slaughter and May also provides support for Law at Pembroke College where Ariel is a Fellow.
  • The Travers Smith Associate Professor of Corporate Finance, Chris Hare, occupies a post established more than 20 years ago with endowment funding.
  • The Linklaters Professor of Corporate Finance Law is Jennifer Payne.

We currently have seven permanently endowed Clarendon Matching Gift posts in Brasenose, Exeter, Keble College, St. Edmund’s Hall, St. Hilda’s, University College, and Worcester College.

Scholarships

Scholarships are a fundraising priority at Oxford Law. Law firms and barristers' chambers have been particularly generous in funding named scholarships. We are grateful to the following chambers: One Essex Court, 3 Verulam Buildings, 4 New Square, Des Voeux Chambers (Hong Kong), Fountain Court Chambers, Pump Court Tax Chambers, South Square, Temple Chambers (Hong Kong). In addition, the James Bullock Scholarship was established in memory of a Pinsent Masons partner who did so much to support tax teaching and research in Oxford and died before his time in 2015. Our “James Upcher Memorial Scholarship” been established by Fietta LLP for a DPhil candidate in Public International Law. In 2019, the South Square Scholarship was renamed the Gabriel Moss QC Insolvency & Restructuring Scholarship in memory of Gabriel Moss, a titan of the insolvency and restructuring world, a much valued member of South Square, and fondly remembered by the Law Faculty for his contribution to BCL teaching.

Scholarships specifically for graduate students in law, now provided by 18 of the colleges, have in some cases received matched funding from Oxford Law. While funds permit, we will continue to match donations of £5,000 from new College donors for graduate law scholarships. Ideally and in time we aim to fund not just the BCL/MJur or MLF but also MPhil and DPhil scholarships. 

Research Centres

Various research centres within Oxford Law benefit directly from the generosity of our benefactors. We have the “White & Case Lecture Room”, the name of which recognizes a significant ongoing gift to Law, and Lady Edwina Grosvenor supports work on prison reform by the Centre for Criminology.

Access logo with photo of students attending a Faculty open dayAccess and Widening Participation

Access or outreach and widening participation (WP) are taken very seriously at Oxford Law and our offerings in this area continue to grow. Baker McKenzie fund the Baker McKenzie Access Officer to support our portfolio of access and outreach initiatives. Freshfields Bruckhaus Derringer funds our ExpLaw programme. Linklaters Oxford Law Access Ambassador Scheme (LOLAA) is active in schools throughout the year. Maitland Chambers supports our Pathways to Law programme, and we continue to participate in the University’ extremely successful UNIQ Summer Schools.

In addition, Allen & Overy fund our Allen & Overy Equality and Diversity Officer.

Mooting

Mooting competitions are generously supported by Allen & Overy (Intellectual Property Law Moot), Gide Loyrette Nouel (French Law Moot), Herbert Smith Freehills (Disability Law Moot and the Intellectual Property Moot), Powell Gilbert (Intellectual Property Moot) and Maitland Chambers for the Intercollegiate (Cuppers) Moot. 

Prizes

Prizes for undergraduates are generously supported by Aron Ping D'Souza, All Souls College, 3 Verulam Buildings, 5 Stone Buildings, Falcon Chambers, Francis Taylor Building, Landmark Chambers, Littleton Chambers, Quadrant Chambers, Red Lion Chambers, Allen & Overy, Linklaters, Norton Rose Fulbright, Penningtons Manches, Pinsent Masons, Slaughter and May, and White & Case.

 

The Subedi Prize was established in 2019 thanks to a generous donation from Professor Surya P. Subedi QC. Each academic year, the prize is awarded to the thesis that, in the opinion of the judges, makes the most exciting original contribution to the relevant field of scholarship and is best-crafted in terms of organisation, style and presentation.

Nicolas Berggruen and his Berggruen Institute have kindly agreed to endow a prize for the best dissertation within the Law Faculty on a subject with transformative potential in the fields of Philosophy, Law & Politics. The dissertation may focus on a fundamental philosophical issue with importance for two of the three fields or be an insightful application of a philosophical idea to an issue of public importance.

Library


The Bodleian Law Library benefits from the generosity of BARBRI and Hogan Lovells who have continued to provide major financial support over the course of the year.

Individual Contributions

Oxford Law also wishes to thank numerous individuals who made a significant contribution. These include Sir David Lewis DL, Alderman, Allan Myers AC QC, Daniel Slifkin, Lady Edwina Grosvenor, Professor Sir Roy Goode, CBE QC FBA, Genevieve Muinzer and Nick Segal.

We have always maintained that for individual funders “a gift to your college for law is a gift to law”. Accordingly, in our annual publication The Oxford Law News, which goes out to 11,000 alumni, we highlight any college-based funding initiatives that we have been asked to promote. Last year we held nine Oxford Law Alumni events, reaching out to hundreds of alumni in the UK, Europe, the US, Canada and Australia. These events were all hosted by the law firms that support our efforts. At home Oxford Law also promotes college activities, with for example St. Hugh’s China Centre, Harris Manchester’s Commercial Law Centre and Mansfield College’s Bonavero Human Rights Institute. Our Benefactors list includes individuals who have given to their colleges for law but requested recognition from us as well.

If you would like to discuss how you or your organisation can support Oxford Law, please contact the Faculty's Alumni and Development Office.

All donations to the Oxford Law are received in accordance with the University’s Donor Charter

 

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