Ikenna graduated in 2019 from Exeter Law School

Alumnus launches Law support network

Alumnus Ikenna Henry Onyebuchi has co-founded a new network to help international and BAME aspiring lawyers understand the process of breaking into the legal industry in England & Wales.

Hello there, I am an LLB Law graduate from the Class of 2019 and I am currently enrolled in the LLM Legal Practice Course on a Career Commitment Scholarship at BPP Law school. At university, I took part in a variety of different activities. I volunteered for the pro bono prison project with the law society at the time, where I informed prisoners at Exeter City Prison of their legal rights and obligations after serving their sentences. Added to this I led the first football team with the African Caribbean Society, played in the law society touch rugby team and in my final year co-founded the first Exeter BAME Law initiative (EBL). EBL sought to increase cultural awareness on campus and provide access to the legal industry for international and BAME students. Through this I partnered up with the Law school at Exeter and sat in meetings with the Provost Commission to suggest certain welfare improvements. EBL also collaborated with a reputable diversity initiative called Aspiring Solicitors to hold a commercial awareness workshop and partnered up with the Re-thinking Society to host an open dialogue about the concept of racism, to improve cultural awareness on campus. Exeter BAME Law later achieved project of the year 2018/2019 in the Students As Change Agents Scheme, and I completed and achieved the Exeter Award. I am also a writer, and shortly before graduation, I self-published my anthology of poetry and prose called The Storm.

Since leaving Exeter, I have completed work experience at a start-up and obtained internships at two global law firms in London. I will be looking to secure a training contract with one of them. Recently, to help international and BAME students understand the process of breaking into the legal industry, I have co-founded BAME Nation, a platform that publishes, facilitates and promotes articles that inform on tips to succeed in the process (both the Bar and solicitor’s route are covered). We also write and publishe commercial awareness articles to aid students with commercial knowledge and the impact of the changing economy on the legal industry. Added to this, we partner up with legal professionals to host webinars and podcasts about their experiences to offer advice to aspiring lawyers. We aim to build a community of well-equipped aspiring lawyers, lawyers and writers that want to share their knowledge with up and coming aspiring lawyers from BAME and international backgrounds.

I would love to invite Exeter alumni in the legal industry to come forward for an interview to speak about their journey and offer tips to aspiring lawyers; or to even contribute towards a piece themselves, on BAME Nation.

For more on BAME Nation check us out here: https://bamenation.co.uk/

Date: 5 June 2020

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Alumnus launches Law support network