Alvan James

Experience

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  Model United Nations

  Jul 2016 - Jun 2018

  Model United Nations Conferences - Delegate

  - Delegate for Brunei in the Fairview Model United Nations Conference (FairMUN) 2016- Delegate for Australia in the Taylor's Model United Nations Conference (TayMUN) 2017

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  Toastmasters International

  Jul 2016 - Jun 2018

  Official Club Member

  Attended weekly formal meetings to convene and improve speech skills. There were diverse roles that can be taken up at meetings such as Table Topics Master, Toastmaster of the Evening, Speech Evaluators, Table Topics Evaluator, Grammarian Reporter, Speech Crutch Officer, and Time Keeper.Officially signing up as Toastmaster International allowed me to embark on the Pathways within the exclusive educational material, improving both communication and leadership skills.Significantly improved public speaking skills by writing and presenting a set of speech projects focusing on different proficiency areas which are evaluated against the respective project objectives.Represented the college Toastmasters Club to the Toastmasters International Area D3 Table Topics Speech Contest (2017) Show less

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  Alvarium (University of Manchester's elite competitive group)

  Oct 2018 - Sept 2021

  Auditioned Member - Acapellist

  Champion of the National University Choir Competition (NUCC) 2021, Open Acapella Competition (OAC) Finals 2020, International Championship for Collegiate Acapella (ICCA) 2020 Quarterfinals, ICCA 2019 Quarterfinals.Virtually presented at the Llyods Feel Good Fest 2021, presented at the Northern Acapella Showcases, Manchester’s Winter & Summer Showcases, Comedy Society Showcases, University’s Celebration of Philanthropy, and charitable events.Fundraised approximately £3000 in 2019 and 2020 combined, by busking, organising cabarets, delivering hired performances, and campaigning.Online Presence:- Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLFidyfD6_-sqCPq7wCG1Vg/featured- Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AlvariumUoM- Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/AlvariumUoM/ Show less

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  The University of Manchester

  Feb 2019 - Aug 2019

  Manchester Gold Mentoring Programme - Mentee

  Accepted as a mentee under a commercial and corporate partner to seek career development guidance and support. Attended career and professional events with my mentor, expanding network and gaining real insights by mingling with lawyers. Commited to engagements such as regular meetings and working on action plans. Mentor offered assistance in preparing for and reviewing career application submissions.The official course of the mentoring programme has elapsed, nevertheless, I am still keeping in touch with my mentor. Show less

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  The Petrichords

  Apr 2019 - Aug 2022

  Auditioned Member - Acapellist

  International Championship for Collegiate Acapella (ICCA) Open 2021 Semifinals.Online Presence:- Linktree: https://linktr.ee/thepetrichords- Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJMY3VODE-j-4WreW0UGIcg- Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thepetrichordsacappella

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  ELSA Manchester

  Jun 2019 - Aug 2021

  Contributed significantly to the organisation of various ELSA events on human rights, career, and employability, legal knowledge and awareness under the guidance and support of ELSA UK National Board (NB) and ELSA International Board (IB). Attended National Council Meetings to convene with other ELSA Local Groups (LG) and the NB.Facilitated impactful ELSA flagship programmes such as ELSA Day 2020, Guided Moot 2020 and the Alternative Careers in Law series. Planned, organised and pre-packaged the ELSA Negotiation Competition 2021 but was unfortunately discontinued due to the pandemic. Show less

  • Vice President for Academic Activities

    Sept 2020 - Aug 2021

  • Vice President for Seminars & Conferences

    Jun 2019 - Aug 2020
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  Baekdu Korean BBQ Restaurant

  Jun 2019 - Sept 2019

  Kitchen Porter

  Prepared orders for three dining halls as part of a small kitchen team.Managed kitchen duties including cleaning, washing, charcoal heating, food preparation, clearing tables, and serving food, whilst paying close attention to the needs of the head chef.

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  Northern Belle

  Jul 2019 - Jul 2019

  Train Stewardship Trial Shifts

  Mastered silver service etiquette to serve customers on luxury trips.Handled general train porter duties, cleaning and setting tables, and served in different carriages.Professionally entertained customers and fulfilled tasks in physically challenging conditions.

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  Oishi Q

  Aug 2019 - Jul 2020

  Restaurant Front of House

  Took orders, served food, attended to customers’ needs, handled phone inquiries, and generally maintained the up-keep of the premise by organising stocks, cleaning, opening, and closing the restaurant.Assisted the kitchen team in food preparation during peak hours after having trained as a reserve chef.Trained new recruits for front-of-house duties.

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  Eversheds Sutherland

  Oct 2019 - Oct 2019

  Office Visit

  Visited the firm's Manchester office giving me good exposure to the firm's culture and working atmosphere. There was a lot of opportunities and sessions of getting to know the firm in a more intimate setting. I also participated in a mock assessment centre conducted by the solicitors themselves, after which we were given feedback and advice on how to best approach assessment centres.

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  Clyde & Co

  Nov 2019 - Nov 2019

  Insight Evening

  Visited the firm's Manchester office where we explored the firm's diversity and inclusion initiatives and had ample discussions about them. There were also plenty of opportunities for getting to know the firm better in a more casual setting. There was a mock assessment centre conducted by the firm's solicitors and future trainees. A networking session with the trainees and solicitors followed.

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  Elevate Education

  Mar 2020 - Sept 2020

  Youth Mentor & Presenter (Job Offer)

  I was selected in a competitive recruitment process where I was 1/50 candidates that were offered the job. Unfortunately, the compulsory job training and commencement of the role had been halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Ordinarily, the role would involve: - Conducting skills and techniques seminars at educational institutions in a motivational and informative style to boost students’ academic performance and personal achievements.- Proportionally adapting scripts based on varying audience type and size, and punctually adapt to shifting venues and time slots.- Improving work flexibility by offering service based on the current needs of the company with no fixed hours. Show less

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  The University of Manchester - Justice Hub

  Jun 2020 - Sept 2020

  Manchester Free Legal Help Virtual Clinics Scheme - Student Volunteer

  Conducted triage meetings to gather information in cases submitted through client inquiry forms.Comprehensively recorded legal advice given by volunteering solicitors in the client appointments.Received feedback through ongoing supervision by solicitors and completed post-appointment reflection sessions.

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  Legal Cheek with The University of Law

  Jun 2020 - Jun 2020

  Virtual Vacation Scheme

  Attended seminars, workshops, and presentations on career employability and applications held in partnership with a diverse range of top City law firms. I was given insights into many legal practice areas and the impacts of Covid-19, the commercial legal market, legal technology, legal aid, and pro bono.Completed four case study exercises on ‘sectors deserving government bailouts’, a ‘client pitch’, ‘onboarding new clients', and a trainee solicitor task ‘prioritisation exercise’.Expanded contacts and built rapport with a diverse range of aspiring lawyers, future trainee lawyers, and a few speakers, all through the networking sessions in the virtual booths (Expo) Show less

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  The Sutton Trust & The University of Manchester

  Jul 2020 - Jun 2021

  Selected as one of few Team Leaders representing the University of Manchester to the wider Sutton Trust organising team. Team Leaders played a crucial role in facilitating the 5-day programme for hundreds of Pathways to Law student mentees from 13 participating institutions. This was the first-ever digital version of what would have been an annual residential conference.As leaders and role models, our responsibilities included motivating, engaging, enthusing and encouraging students to get the most out of the conference. We also had to keep time, manage students' behaviour and responses, be observant and appropriately report issues, and support students and staff. Around 10 students were assigned under my team throughout the conference.Produced content and ideas for leading sessions including interactive sessions such as games and social activities, team-building activities, group projects, insight sessions, informal networking, reflections, and icebreakers.Facilitated sessions such as those held with the University on academics and admissions, industry-led skills workshops, webinars, insight sessions and panel discussions involving a diverse range of law firms, motivational talks, interactive activities and discussions with professionals, and the industry networking sessions with lawyers.Maintained presence on The Access Platform (TAP) as an Ambassador where I set up a profile and answered common questions in a FAQ format. I also responded to students' direct inquiries and had conversations with them, supporting them with helpful information and guidance.The conference was conducted very successfully and the overall feedback, in the end, was overwhelmingly positive. I had received many personal compliments and mentions from students who have been inspired by my input and compassionate engagement. Show less

  • Pathways to Law - Mentor & Ambassador

    Aug 2019 - Jun 2021

  • Pathways to Law National Digital Conference - Team Leader

    Jul 2020 - Jul 2020
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  Bright Network

  Jul 2020 - Jul 2020

  Virtual Internship - Commercial Law (Internship Experience UK)

  I attended seminars, workshops, and presentations on career employability and applications advice held in partnership with a diverse range of top City law firms. I was introduced to the world of commercial law, taught core skills for junior commercial lawyers, explored the global investigations practice area and the anatomy of a private equity transaction, and learnt about legal drafting and also legal and business research. I also benefitted from the general skills sessions such as networking, self-management, teamwork, and collaboration.I was given a work sample I had to advise a hypothetical client in an acquisition transaction. The advice as a whole had to be incorporated and packaged intuitively into a brief. The final work sample produced was peer-reviewed and marked based on a provided scoring matrix. The work included: - Providing advice on the key components of the transaction- Reviewing an NDA and completing a table of amendments- Compiling a table of relevant considerations for the due diligence process- Researching, comparing, and analysing alternative models of dispute resolution against the unsigned contractually stipulated method (court litigation) with the aim of advising on the most advantageous optionBesides that, I expanded contacts and built rapport with a diverse range of aspiring lawyers, future trainee lawyers, and a few speakers, through the networking sessions in the virtual booths (Expo) during the alumni office hours. Show less

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  Islamophobia Response Unit (IRU) MEND

  Aug 2020 - Mar 2022

  Volunteer Caseworker

  Trained to act as clients’ main point of contact in Islamophobic hate crime and discrimination cases, facilitating legal advice and litigation support provided by lawyers from external partner firms and chambers.Constantly liaise with qualified internal supervisors who guide and give feedback on performance.Engage in an emotional support and counselling role when corresponding with distressed clients.Improved the evidence management system by creating comprehensive guides for clients to submit evidence. Show less

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  Various Organisations

  Oct 2020 - Jun 2021

  Mentoring Schemes - Mentee

  Organisations Offering Mentorship:- GlobalLawyersConnect (GLC): November to December 2020- Epoch: October 2020 to June 2021- ELM Insights: January 2021 to June 2021Accepted as a mentee under future trainee solicitors and an experienced corporate solicitor to seek career guidance and support. Gained real career insights by having conversations and questions regarding the industry. Committed to engagements such as regular meetings and working on action plans. Mentor offered assistance in preparing for and reviewing career application submissions.The official course of the mentoring programmes has elapsed, nevertheless, I am still keeping in touch with my mentors. Show less

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  White & Case LLP

  Nov 2020 - Nov 2020

  Open Day

  Top 50 selected candidates out of a pool of approximately 900 applicants.Introduced to the firm in an intimate virtual setting, attended application and interview workshops, trainee Q&As, participated in interactive team activities and assessment experiences.Engaged in a one-to-one individual application guidance session.

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  The University of Manchester

  Jun 2021 - Jul 2021

  Processed case file submissions, drafted interview questions, conducted interviews, carried out legal research, and produced letters of advice under supervising volunteer lawyers and qualified in-house supervisors. Liaised closely with partner student advisors, supervisors, and solicitors to manage cases.Attended the North West Law Clinics Network 2019 conference with leaders from law clinics across the UK & US.Experienced in using Clio Legal Practice Case Management System and have recently advised on a commercial case in April-May 2021. Show less Approximately top 30 selected candidates (out of approximately 250 students) to be placed on the scheme.The first week was conducted with the Justice Hub. I was assigned to the Family Law team to provide advice on a suitable topic to the public around the theme of Recovery and Empowerment. We chose the area of domestic abuse and had to prepare short video clips on the advice, a final presentation in front of a panel of judges, and supporting materials. For the supporting materials, we produced a comprehensive Handbook, a Safety Action Plan, and Mythbusters Infographic where different pieces played different yet complementary roles in delivering crucial advice and information. The Infographic was a task that I worked on and produced myself, on top of contributing significantly to the other tasks. The main challenge was to research accurate, detailed, and relevant information about the law, available resources/help/support, and advice, and to then deliver them in an easily digestible manner for the intended audience, using a human-centric approach. We used proper organisation, accurate summarisation of salient points, and good aesthetics to help improve the delivery. After professional review, the video and supporting materials will be published on the Justice Hub Legal Advice Centre's website for public use.We liaised consistently with our professional (volunteer lawyers) and academic leads for their input and critique. Besides our team's effective collaboration and coordination, the biggest commendation we received was how well we listened to and incorporated the feedback and guidance received from the leads throughout the scheme.The second week was held in partnership with The University of Law. We attended workshops, seminars, and sessions aimed at boosting employability. Lastly, we also had a mock interview and a feedback session immediately after. Show less

  • Justice Hub Legal Advice Centre - Student Advisor

    Sept 2019 - Jul 2021

  • Justice Hub Virtual Vacation Scheme

    Jun 2021 - Jun 2021
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  DWF

  Jun 2021 - Jun 2021

  Legal Innovation Design Sprint with DWF Ventures

  Top 4 competition champions who qualified for the sprint out of 50 eligible contestants, forming a sprint team.In serving the client's in-house legal operations team, we designed a technologically agnostic conceptual blueprint of a bespoke online visual dashboard for workflow management, task prioritisation, and central storage.Solution proposed was well-received alongside an abundance of overwhelmingly positive feedback.

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  Law School 2.0

  Aug 2021 - Aug 2021

  Law School 2.0 Legal Tech Vacation Scheme

  Attended the 3-day Skills Workshops which equipped interns with crucial knowledge, skills, and exposure to innovation in the legal sphere. This was achieved through a range of seminars, talks, skills sessions, debates, insightful discussions, expert panels, and legal technology product demonstrations. There were plenty of opportunities that I utilised to network with the industry pioneers, technology and innovation experts, and charismatic leaders.First Day:- The Business of Law by Majo Porvažník- The Past, Present & Future of Technology in Law by Graeme J.- Problem Framing by Jay Dunning and Nikita Patel- LegalTech Product Demos with Avvoka, Verdikto and iManageSecond Day:- 'Design Thinking & Innovation Methods' by Sarah Blair- 'Solution Design Panel' with Erika Concetta Pagano, Catherine Bamford, Peter Duffy, Jay Smith- 'Fail Until You Succeed' with Jonathan Patterson and Jay Dunning- 'LegalTech Product Demos' with Anton Vashkevich for Contract.one , Jenny Hotchin for iManage and Jay Smith for SenseCheckThird Day:- 'Ensuring Solution Adoption' by Michael Kennedy and Olivia Hancock- 'How to Get a Horse to Drink Water' by Jack Shepherd- 'Alternative Careers in Law Panel' with Sam Moore, Chloe Kennedy, Amy Conroy and Helen Lowe- 'LegalTech Product Demos' with Logan Oliver from Office & Dragons, Ján Búza from Trama and Tom Dunlop from Summize Show less

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  SYKE

  Sept 2021 - Aug 2022

  Junior Legal Engineer

  Won the SYKE’s 2021 recruitment competition and succeeded in the recruitment process, earning the offer.Grew my expertise within the Thomson Reuters team - centred around HighQ Collaborate and Contract Express, applying these to various projects and clients including global natural resource corporations, publishing and healthcare businesses, FMCG corporations, and law firms.Building bespoke legal tech solutions including contract lifecycle management, matter management, document repositories, document management systems, AI contract analysis tools, horizon scanning platforms and document automation for diverse legal teams whilst managing the delivery of solutions throughout the entire implementation journey.Completed an 8-month part-time secondment at an international City law firm as a Legal Tech Consultant. Show less

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  Taylor Wessing

  Sept 2022 - Dec 2022

  Legal Tech Knowledge Engineer

  Formed part of a powerful dynamic team managing the firm's entire UK's and nearby regions' legal tech needs.Used a set of industry-standard legal tech tools and internally owned proprietary products to discover/identify opportunities, scope requirements, design, build, test, maintain, and enhance solutions for the delivery of legal services.Delivered a diverse range of projects for internal and external clients, working alongside a broad range of stakeholders including lawyers, business departments, innovation arm, knowledge management team, and IT services.Collaboratively managed a legal tech/engineering 'service/support desk' where we resolved issues and met requests raised by internal and external clients by troubleshooting and delivering builds/solutions. Show less

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  Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP

  Jan 2023 - now

  Legal Solutions Engineer (Innovation)

  Part of a lean and ambitious team serving the firm’s global innovation function via legal technology engineering, process improvement, effective implementation and successful adoption.Aligned with our practice area growth engines, we support our global offices across multiple regions, catering to internal and external clients.Delivering innovative and impactful legal solutions by managing the entire project lifecycle – discovering and identifying opportunities, scoping requirements and limitations, designing and building, testing and enhancing solutions, induction and training for user adoption, launching built solutions, providing post-launch hypercare and maintenance.Managing clients and stakeholders effectively by carrying them through the implementation journey, especially on adopting built solutions and improving existing practices to maximise efficiency and efficacy gains.Technical lead for some products in our technology stack, expanding its technical implementation to unlock wider capabilities and maximise value creation across our solutions.Delivering innovation and legal technology overview training sessions to trainee solicitors as part of our Firm's Innovation trainee seat.Led the designing and development of, and migration to the Legal Solutions team’s revamped project lifecycle management system following a collaborative team sprint to reinvent and optimise our internal processes.Collectively designed and developed an intelligent, highly automated client self-service platform which was crowned winner in the Law Firm category of the American Legal Technology Awards 2024 - https://americanlegaltechnology.com/ | https://www.bclplaw.com/en-US/events-insights-news/bclp-named-recipient-of-the-2024-american-legal-technology-award.html Show less