Nobody could deny it, Exeter’s Bracton Law Society have walked through hell and back in the last year. In the last few months they have had to face down snarling rumours that dragged the society’s name through the mud. One such review, taken from their Facebook page, even suggests: “Everything wrong with this university can be found in pockets of this society. Has about as much integrity as Theresa May has genuine human emotion.”
This criticism was caused by the actions of a small number of BLS members, writing horrifically racist, sexist and violent messages in their WhatsApp chat. After this came to light last spring, HCX wrote an article condemning the actions of these few, and exploring “Why What You Say On Social Media Does, and Always Will Matter”.
However, we felt that though Bracton Law Society have been continually dragged for supposedly perpetuating this behaviour, it was only fair to hear the other side of the story. Why should the future actions of the BLS committee be tarnished forever by less than 1.5% of its members of the 2017-8 cohort? Obviously, the society, and indeed the university, are in need of a great deal of social change, and BLS may just have found the committee to do that. We sat down with their new President, Lily Hayes, to hear her improved and overwhelmingly inclusive ideas for the future of the Bracton Law Society.
We were not disappointed.
It’s Tuesday morning, and Queen’s Café is full of humanities students. I am sat in a quiet corner trying to approach my dissertation ideas with the least amount of fear possible whilst waiting for Lily Hayes to arrive. In a somewhat last minute thought I wonder if she might not recognize me, and embarrassed, shoot off an email disclosing that yes, I was in fact hiding in a corner, and that the ratty white jumper and gold glasses would act as a kind of beacon for her to find me.
She arrives early, and greets me with a friendly smile, introducing herself and sitting down on the cracking leather chair across from where I am huddled with my laptop. She looks infinitely more awake, and put together than most people in there, and I immediately get a sense that her Presidency is not one for messing around. I wonder if I should have given her my more comfy seat, and thank her for agreeing to meet me.
I can sense that this interview is going to be as real, and as candid as it gets:
Lily Hayes: So I’m a third year lawyer, and deciding to be president was a really last minute decision. I was always running to be part of Bracton Law: I wanted to be the Bar Officer. However, I did see an opportunity for Bracton to be changed. When everything kicked off I decided I was going to try and set up a Bar Society, (I’m going to be really honest here), but I started thinking, “What if, what if BLS goes? What will that mean for students?” Bracton Law provided so many opportunities for me, and many other people- it’s the biggest Law society on Campus! So, well, the work I wanted to do with the Bar is something I can still carry forward with Bracton Law.
I was really keen on the Academic side of BLS, and not ever really involved in Sports and everything- purely because I’m not very good at it!!
Bryony Watts: God, me neither- there’s no worry about that here!
LH: (laughs) Well, so that’s the kind of direction I wanted to take BLS in. You’ll see, we do still have two sports teams, and we are still planning on having two big socials, but we’ve cut down on that side of things a lot. We’ve headed in a really academic direction. Hence my input as the academic and advocacy officer. After speaking to the guild –
So… The guild basically asked us to have this officer- the inclusivity and equality officer- when leadership positions got elected. They sort of told us, ‘we need to wait to see what happens after’, and haven’t really been as forthcoming because the investigation is still ongoing. After saying that we needed to have this officer- they really didn’t say or do anything else.
So I just said, ‘okay, well I’m going to make this my own thing’. We very luckily had the African Caribbean society reach out to us, they’ve been absolutely amazing. We are running an event with them, which is going to be really fun, and I’m really excited for that! I’ve got some barristers coming down, and, yeah, really exciting! And we’re doing some stuff with Women in Law…
BW: I actually also noticed that a lot of your committee members this year are female, which I thought was brilliant. Of course, HCX is a female magazine, and I kind of wondered what you would have to say about there being more women on the committee?
LH: Yeah, last year’s committee had a lot of women too. However, it’s great to have so many women on committee and influencing the way the society is going. I think perhaps my leadership has brought the society into being less of a business than before. I don’t want to disrespect any of last year’s committee, or their president. They did amazingly, especially for what BLS was at that point. Right now, it’s very different.
I think a lot of people are quite liking the way that it’s going. People are liking the academic side of things. In terms of inclusivity, that’s been our biggest mission statement. Including every society member, and not only that, but the wider Exeter community.
It’s annoying, because I don’t think that as a society we should have spoken for all lawyers on campus. I’ve had a bit of an issue with, yeah, the Law School and the Guild, both passing off blame to one another.
BW: Oh really?! Have you had any really negative comments about the society itself, and the incident to you personally?
LH: I think a lot of people on campus and wider have been very understanding that this wasn’t a Bracton Law Society issue, that it was a group of individuals, who made up 1.5% of the society last year. I think in the first couple of weeks, the Guild were a little bit on top of us, and I didn’t feel like I was President at all. But as soon as we got the ball rolling, I do feel like we’re now really getting somewhere.
BW: And did you notice a difference in the number of sign ups that you got this year for freshers?
LH: I know every single Law society took a bit of a hit with the new sign-up system this year. But we still got a really healthy number of people, and its all going well. I think, perhaps, that the incident affected second and third year sign ups more than freshers, only in the sense that a lot of them are already on their way to knowing what they want to do, so they don’t need a holding hand from the society now, like last year.
And now, because we have less of a social aspect, (yes, people did just join Bracton for the social side), seeing as I’ve now said that’s not right, or how I want to carry the society on, people tend not to bother, if there’s not as many social events or a bar crawl, or whatever.
BW: Oh okay, so it’s a lot less about the social side now?
LH: I mean, yeah. I guess there might be a little bit missing in terms of, now, a social atmosphere for Law. But then, also, we are second and third years- how much social life can we really expect to be having?
BW: I completely get it. I’m a third year myself, and it gets to this sort of time of the year and everyone feels like they actually have to put their foot down and work a bit harder.
LH: Exactly. And it’s not like we don’t have any socials! We have our Firehouse Social, a lot of less drinking events.
BW: Do you think that will help the whole, sort of ‘drinking culture’ idea?
LH: The thing is, we were never a drinking culture, because all of our socials were, one, quite big grandeur events, which meant the bars were normally quite expensive so, it wasn’t really…
BW: So not really anything like what happened with Exeter’s Snowsport Society and their white t-shirt social? Not that kind of drinking culture?
LH: We were never really a drinking society, maybe more than we are now, but I think because of the interaction we have with firms, it was more that BLS had become a very commercial entity, and I just wanted to change that a little towards being more academic. And our budget for socials is just that bit smaller now.
BW: Have you noticed a difference in the way that firms communicate with you now?
LH: There are firms who asked about it, and I’ve explained my position and what I’ve been trying to do with the society going forward. But we’ve still got pretty much all of our sponsors. The only issue is, that because I was elected so late, generally societies go and ask for sponsorship in around March. So by the time I got there, I had a much more limited field to play with unfortunately.
But every firm still wanted to work with us, which was great. I think people were very understanding that, in a company, if there is someone that’s done something wrong, it doesn’t come from the whole company itself. It’s difficult, because there were members of committee in that WhatsApp chat, but I know for a fact that the President, the rest of the committee, and members had no idea, and nothing to do with any of it.
One issue we have had though, is with our football team. A lot of people, seeing it as a Law football chat didn’t want to join and play football with the society. But it wasn’t. And I know there are so many members who would love to play, but the stigma is holding people back from it. We even pay for it for them within their £25 joining fee, because otherwise, to do intramural it can cost almost £300. We’ve worked with the Law School now, and the sort of gesture- is that I’ve opened the team up to any Law Student, to make it much more inclusive. And maybe that will destroy the sort of stigma surrounding the team.
I have also asked the AU, (haven’t quite got it ratified), that our training we opened to any genders. Unfortunately, only males are allowed to play intramural. Really ridiculous, I’ve been asking and asking. So if you get a chance, maybe Her Campus can ask the guild why women can’t play intramural football! It’s 2018, come on. We need to have the opportunity for inclusivity and equality.
BW: Woah, I had no idea. I definitely will! That’s really not right. And do you think BLS will recover fully from this in the future?
LH: If anything, I think we’ve come out of this in a new positive light, in the sense that the direction I’m taking the society in is to be less of a massive, business style society- a good thing, in my eyes.
BW: It sounds brilliant, you seem like you’re doing a great job. What sort of things can our readers look forward to this term with BLS?
LH: Aww thank you! Yes, the next thing we have lined up is our 13thOctober (the same day as the Law Careers Fair) collaboration with African-Caribbean Society. And towards the end of November we’re planning an event with Women in Law too! So all exciting stuff! Plus our normal career events as well!
BW: Perfect! Thank you so much for coming to talk to us Lily, and we can’t wait to see where BLS goes with you at the helm!
HCX thanks the Bracton Law Society for their time and collaboration. Under the leadership of the brilliant Lily, it seems the only way is up for BLS.