On behalf of our green charity partner, Friends of the Earth, we cordially invite you to celebrate their Legal team’s precedent-setting achievements over the past year and learn how their dedicated lawyers continue to fight for long-term change to protect our environment at this crucial time. Be with us to also hear from interns benefiting from the unique Phil Michaels Legal Interns Scholarship Fund.

Exclusive to Circle Square members, please join us for a private pre-drinks reception during which we’ll be joined by Friends of the Earth Co-Executive Director Miriam Turner, as well as their leading lawyers and campaigners. Circle Square co-founders Nick Viner and Noam Tamir will launch our own green manifesto and share ways in which members can make a difference. This provides an excellent opportunity for networking and finding out more about our combined efforts to make positive, lasting change.

Following this, the main event will include a keynote address from a special guest speaker (TBA), opportunities to meet members of the wider legal community and engage in fundraising for their vital and successful work. You will hear about one of the most important cases of our lifetimes as lawyers share how they are taking the government to court again to strengthen their Net Zero Strategy.

We do hope you can join us for this special evening.

About the Phil Michaels Legal Interns Scholarship Fund

Phil Michaels, son of Circle Square members, was Head of Legal at Friends of the Earth (FOE) from 2001 to 2010 and sadly died in August 2014. Phil was passionate about environmental justice and was responsible for setting up Friends of the Earth’s Rights and Justice Centre, the UK’s first pro bono or affordable legal advice centre for communities affected by environmental damage.

The Fund was launched in 2016, in Phil’s memory, to provide paid internships for aspiring young environmental lawyers. The interns gain paid professional experience in environmental campaigning law at the start of their career that is not available in any other similar organisation.

The Fund remains unique in the environmental movement since no other internship like it is paid, meaning that elsewhere only the privileged get access. FOE is particularly proud of its outreach to BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) backgrounds, LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex and bisexual) people and disabled people to make sure that they reach the widest possible range of applicants – and that these groups have access to careers in environmental law. They also specifically target universities with high numbers of BAME students with an unprecedented 250 (approx.) applications per post.

Friends of the Earth legal interns also provide extra capacity the legal team urgently needs to research, mount, and win legal cases to protect the environment and people. Interns work across the broad range of FOE’s campaigns and, in addition to direct legal experience, gain in-depth knowledge of several environmental issues.

Since launching, 12 aspiring young lawyers have completed the program and gone on to auspicious careers as a result. For more information on the Phil Michaels Legal Interns Scholarship Fund visit: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/PhilMichaelsFund

DATE:Tuesday 10th October 2023

TIME:6:00 — 8:30pm

VENUE:Great Northern Hotel, Pancras Road, Kings Cross, London, N1C 4TB

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