The Nottingham Commercial Awareness Society is a careers-based student group that targets students with an interest in commercial law at the University of Nottingham. The society has quickly become well-established in Nottingham, with an open to all membership allowing our members to include a balanced mix of both law and non-law students.
‘NCAS’, as we are known on campus, aims to cultivate ‘commercial awareness’ in our members. We do so by offering opportunities such as our fortnightly commercial awareness newsletters, a yearly commercial awareness handbook and various competitions and events with our partner law firms throughout the year.
Last year we collaborated with global law firms such as Hogan Lovells, BCLP and Eversheds Sutherland to name a few. Our highlight events last year included our Commercial Awareness Competition with Eversheds Sutherland and the Legal Tech competition with Taylor Wessing. In addition, we were able to run a very successful practice area series in collaboration with 5 top law firms – Hogan Lovells, BCLP, Latham & Watkins, Davis Polk and Simmons & Simmons. Each session explored different legal practice areas such as competition law, international arbitration, private equity, capital markets and legal technology. We were also able to offer 50 year-long Watson Glaser practice packs to our members and hosted webinars with speakers from DLA Piper, Allen & Overy and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
We also value ourselves for being one of the more accessible legal societies at Nottingham. With our yearly society membership costing students only £3 we are able to attract a wide spectrum of members and introduce commercial legal practice to students who meet various social mobility flags. This has allowed us to facilitate access to law and interact with students who would otherwise be more reluctant to enter the competitive legal field.
