In January 2011, the SYLA and WS Society launched a joint writing competition for young lawyers in Scotland to address an age old question: 'Do lawyers really help people or are they just helping themselves?'  A flood of entries were received from students, trainees and newly qualified solicitors.  After considering all of the entries, the committee of the SYLA passed a shortlist to the WS Society to choose the ultimate winner.

The SYLA and WS Society are pleased to announce that the ultimate winner of the competition is Katherine Spencer, trainee at the Government Legal Service for Scotland.  However, the judging panel wished to give particular commendation to Nicola Park for her very impressive entry. 

Catriona Headley, President of the SYLA: 'I was very impressed with the standard of entry, as were the rest of the committee.  It was very hard to narrow the entries down to the shortlist, let alone choosing a final winner.  Each entry took a slightly different approach when answering the question, which made for some very interesting reading! I hope that the SYLA and WS Society will be able to make this an annual competition.'

Robert Pirrie, Chief Executive of the WS Society: 'We've really enjoyed running the competition.  Congratulations to Katherine and Nicola.  Lawyers should be able to write well and persuasively for any purpose and audience.  That's what we want to encourage.  We're already thinking about next year's challenge.'

Winning entry - Katherine Spencer

Runner up - Nicola Park