T: 020 7583 0811
E: chambers@12kbw.co.uk

12KBW is delighted announce our annual essay competition focusing on questions of interest in tort law. The question for this year’s competition is:

How should the Supreme Court decide the appeal in Alexander Lewis-Ranwell v G4S Healthcare (UK) Limited and others? Please support your answer with reference to precedent.

(At the time of the opening of this competition, the Supreme Court has not handed down a judgment. If it does this during the competition period, then candidates are entitled to comment on whether they agree or disagree with the judgment in their answers. Candidates who have not mentioned the Supreme Court judgment will not be penalised).

The competition is open to all students registered with UK higher educational institutions. The essays will be anonymised for judging. Essays should be no more than 1,000 words (including footnotes but not including the title) and will be accepted up until the deadline of 5pm on Monday 10 November 2025.

The three winning entrants will be awarded cash prizes of £2,000 (1st prize), £1,250 (2nd prize), and £750 (3rd prize). The order of the top three essays will be judged by The Honourable Mr Justice Cotter, a High Court Judge specialising in tort law. The winners will be announced in early 2025.

All prize-winning essays will be published on the 12KBW website. The winners will also be offered the chance to undertake a mini-pupillage at 12KBW.

See the 2024 winners and 2023 winners.

Prizes

The prizes are as follow:

  • 1st prize: £2,000
  • 2nd prize: £1,250
  • 3rd prize: £750
  • The prize winners will be offered mini-pupillages at 12KBW to take place at a time convenient to both student and chambers.

Rules

  • The title for this year’s competition is as specified on the main competition page.
  • Essays should address this question and will be judged solely on the cogency, compellingness, and originality of the response.
  • The competition is open to all students in any discipline registered with a higher UK educational institution on the date the essay is received by us.
  • The deadline for entries to be submitted to the competition is 5pm on Monday 10 November 2025. Late entries will not be accepted. New versions of essay entries already submitted will not be accepted past the deadline.
  • The word limit (including footnotes) is 1,000 words.
  • 12 King’s Bench Walk, the organisers, have the right to publish or reproduce at any time all or part of any essay entered for the awards.
  • The essay must be the sole creation and original work of the entrant. You must complete it without assistance from generative text AI systems such as ChatGPT. Using an AI or similar system to generate text for an essay is considered cheating, even if you tailor or alter the text before submission. Essays will be checked by the judges for AI input and plagiarism.
  • 12KBW reserve the right to delete or omit from any published article anything that in their absolute discretion should not be published on editorial or legal grounds.
  • Only one entry per person will be allowed. All entries will be acknowledged but not returned.
  • Essays should be submitted via our online application form below (typed and in Microsoft Word format only).
  • The applicant’s name must not be included on the essay. The essays are kept anonymised for marking.
  • Entrants cannot win more than one prize in any one year. The award of all or any of the prizes lies solely within the discretion of the judges appointed by the organisers. The judges’ decision will be final.
  • The prizes are as follows:
    • 1st prize: £2,000
    • 2nd prize: £1,250
    • 3rd prize: £750
  • 12KBW reserve the discretion to award different prizes than those advertised.
  • Prize winners will be required to show proof of their eligibility to enter into the competition in the form of a student card or certificate of enrolment or otherwise.
  • All prize-winning essays will be published on the 12KBW website.
  • The prize winners will also be offered mini-pupillages at 12KBW to take place in that year at a time convenient to both student and chambers.

Personal Data

  • Your personal data: We obtain your name and contact details, along with your submission information and the essay itself. This data is only processed for the administration of the essay competition as described below.
  • Our purposes for processing your data: We will process your personal data for the purposes of administering this essay competition and (in the case of successful entrants) publicising and promoting future such competitions.
  • Retention of your data: We will retain all entrants’ applications for one year after the competition deadline and will then delete them permanently. Successful entrants’ data will be retained after the deadline as follows: 1) winners’ names and entries will stay on our website to promote the competition, and 2) we may contact past winners to request (non-mandatory) participation in publicity materials.
  • Should you have any questions about the use of your data as above, please contact data.protection@12kbw.co.uk.

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