“For the first time, the elected executive committee team of the Junior Chamber of Advocates is made up of students coming from all the different years of the law course, making this team a representative one which should help us attract even more members,” said newly elected president Rebecca Mercieca.
The other elected members include Gabriella Chircop as vice president, Matt Micallef St John as secretary general, Nicole Fenech as financial officer, Cristina Zammit as PRO, Roberta Spiteri as projects manager and Paula Briffa as academic officer.
The main aim of the chamber is to bridge the gap between law students and their profession. Junior Chamber members eventually become members of the Chamber of Advocates upon graduating and receiving their warrant.
Referring to the Junior Chamber’s achievements over the past term, Ms Mercieca spoke about the improvement of the Prattika-Link Project which involved more lawyers, law firms and students, as well as a number of important collaborations with the Faculty of Laws, including the Advocacy Skills credit, whereby students helped in the organisation of client interviews. Another project which the Junior Chamber has been helping with is the Law Clinic. This year JCA is working closely with David Zammit, head of the Civil Law Department at the University of Malta, to help improve and include more students within the workings of the recently launched Law Clinic.
“Another great success of the past executive team was the Moot Court competition, which was Trial by Jury. Through this event, the JCA gave the opportunity to the participating teams to experience the actual procedure of a trial by jury and present their case in court in front of a member of the judiciary. JCA also sought to appoint a number of law students as jurors for both rounds of the competition, to involve more students.”
Referring to the main targets for the next term, Ms Mercieca said: “While building on the excellent work so far, we will be working to give the JCA a stronger international dimension, we will seek to improve the Prattika Link project and take the pilot project ‘Kelmet il-Professjoni’ to the next level. We will also strive to involve more students in JCA’s activities, organise more seminars and workshops and keep on creating new initiatives to further help bridge the gap between students and lawyers.”
In the coming weeks, the JCA committee is expected to appoint another two members who will take on the roles of student outreach officers.