Scholarship paves the way for alumnus to study BCL at Oxford

Alexander Jackman has had an inspiring and ambitious law school experience, and his early career journey shows the incredible pathways available to Sydney Law School students and alumni.

He graduated in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts, and in 2020 he completed his Bachelor of Laws from Sydney Law School.

As a law student, Alexander balanced his time impressively between full time study and working at top-tier law firm, Allens. As a graduate with excellent academic achievements, Alexander moved seamlessly into graduate and lawyer roles at Allens, before being recently promoted to an Associate.

This year, Alexander was awarded The Justice Peter Hely Scholarship and he will be heading to Oxford University in September to study a Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL), a world-leading, highly sought-after, and competitive postgraduate degree.

Upon completion, his LLB from Sydney Law School and BCL from Oxford will place Alexander in an unparalleled position, enabling him to pursue the most ambitious of career goals anywhere in the world.

This combined with other factors that drew me to the University of Sydney more generally, especially the breadth and depth of subjects on offer within the Arts Faculty, the University’s rich sporting culture, and the exciting intercollegiate environment. 

There’s so much that one can get out of Sydney Law School, but (as the old adage goes) it depends on how much one puts in.

I really enjoyed sinking my teeth into topics in the form of lengthy dissertations. This was an opportunity that was afforded to me beyond my Honours thesis on the intersection of tort and contract law, with opportunities to write extremely rewarding papers on constitutional law and intellectual property, and even as part of a week-long elective held in Cambridge (which was a highlight in itself). 

Our teachers instilled immense confidence in our writing capabilities and encouraged us to approach such assignments not simply as essays written for a mark, but as potential articles for publication. Most importantly, however, the breakthroughs in writing those papers often came after an unintentionally extended lunch on the lawns with friends, and my fondest memories will always be those involving the great mates I made during my studies. 

I am keen to make intellectual contributions to the law, whether that is through practice, publications or teaching, or a combination of all three. I see the BCL at Oxford as a great opportunity to stretch my legal reasoning capabilities. In particular, the small tutorial class sizes encourage the teaching of law as a true humanities subject where ideas are freely debated, and so I am very excited to throw myself into that dynamic learning environment. 

The timing of undertaking further study is important and will always depend upon an individual’s circumstances. However, to the extent that one has an academic itch, I think it best to err on the side of scratching it sooner rather than later.

Life has a habit of getting in the way of such ambitions, and the longer one leaves their realisation, the harder it can become. Personally, I am very keen to indulge in some of the many extra-curricular activities on offer at Oxford, and so I am glad to be going there while I am still within reach of the energy and fitness of an undergraduate! 

The Justice Peter Hely Scholarship was established in 2008 by Sydney Law School through contributions from the friends and colleagues of the Late Justice Peter Hely, to promote postgraduate study in the fields of commercial law and equity.

Valued at $20,000, the scholarship is open to students and alumni who have completed, or who are about to complete, an undergraduate or postgraduate law degree at the University of Sydney and have an offer of admission in a postgraduate degree at Sydney Law School or equivalent institution.

Applications for the scholarship open in October 2022.

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