The annual Exploring Law Conference (ELC) was held again this year at the Faculty between 30 March and 2 April. The four-day residential experience provides 250 Year 12 (Y13 NI/S5 Scotland) students the opportunity to gain a balanced view of Law as an academic subject as well as a profession and offer a deep insight into life as a Cambridge undergraduate student.
The Conference was a huge success and the delegates had a fantastic opportunity to attend taster lectures and engage in workshops with current legal professionals from the Faculty’s partner firms and chambers, all while staying at 6 Cambridge Colleges.
The event was organised by the Faculty's Outreach, Widening Participation and Communications Coordinator Rosalind Boswell alongside the student-led Exploring Law Conference Committee constituted from current undergraduate Law students and a team of vounteer Conference Mentors also drawn from the Faculty's undergraduate students.
Of the delegates, 150 are students who meet additional widening participation criteria and thus qualify for fully-funded places, which are generously funded by our Access and Widening Participation Partner firms – Clifford Chance, Hogan Lovells, Slaughter and May, and Maitland Chambers. This year, all students (fee-paying and fully-funded) were chosen through a rigorous process and among a pool of 1250 applicants who had to present their interest for the course and future plans in a comprehensive application.
I was really nervous when I applied and actually got a place however coming to the conference has built my confidence in both law and applying to Cambridge and what it could be like. Conference delegate
Prioritising students who met several widening participation criteria resulted in an extremely diverse Conference delegation, which reaches a number of the Faculty's targets. Over 60% of participants were eligible for Free School Meals, and 95% of the delegation came from maintained-sector schools.
The Faculty is proud to have worked with the Conference Committee for over half a century in reaching out to prospective students and opening the gates of access to the study of Law and the Cambridge educational experience. There is a long history of Conference attendees subsequently successfully applying to study at the Faculty.
For anyone considering applying for next year applications will open around October 2026.