Junior Lawyers Division

The Junior Lawyers Division and Raleigh International

Our innovative and pioneering programme with the Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) has seen teams of lawyers from different legal firms and professional expertise working together on sustainable community projects in Southern India and Borneo.

How the programme works and the benefits of it

Teams of 10-14 lawyers have 18-days to complete projects providing communities with either access to water or renewable energy. The team will spend the duration of the expedition living and working alongside people from tribal and marginalised communities.

They live and work in basic conditions within remote rural locations. The work is physically and mentally demanding. The environment is unfamiliar and challenging which promotes fantastic outcomes and rewards. It is these conditions that provide the platform to accelerate skills development in your employees:

• teamwork
• resilience, adaptability and conflict management
• communication & cross cultural relationship building
• leadership development & decision making

At Raleigh International, 27 years of expertise on the ground enables us to meet the specific requirements of our corporate partners.

At the end of the JLD project the lawyers participated in a cross-cultural legal workshop. This enabled them to develop their professional network and understating of legal systems in other emerging markets.

Legal professionals were also able to obtain a year's worth of Continuing Professional Development points within an 18-day expedition, as recognised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

"I feel that on the Raleigh Project I developed skills in dealing with conflict, leadership and communication. During the project, I was exposed to situations and scenarios which I would not have encountered at work which brought these skills to the fore. Living and working in close quarters under pressure with other strong willed people will inevitably lead to putting conflict resolution or persuasion skills into play. I was also plunged into a completely foreign and alien culture with no common language. It was essential to be able to communicate with the community, and this lead to some creativity in getting your point across. In addition, working alongside the community gives you a new sense of understanding and tolerance. These skills and outlook certainly are applicable with working with and advising clients on an everyday basis."

Katherine Gibson works in the GB legal team at Coca-Cola and was part of the 2009 JLD expedition

Get out there

Our expeditions offer a unique opportunity to invest in, develop and retain your employees, whilst contributing to the development of marginalised communities overseas.

If you would like to talk to us about how we can design and deliver professionally facilitated bespoke expeditions to fit your corporate responsibility and employee engagement programmes, please call:

Adam Scott on 0207 183 1278

or

email him on: a.scott@raleighinternational.org