The Financial Remedies Journal annual essay competition

The editorial board of the Financial Remedies Journal is delighted to announce the launch of its second essay competition, which will be open to any undergraduate law or GDL law student from a University in England and Wales. We particularly invite submissions from those who do not yet have a training contract or pupillage. 

The essay competition has been designed to give undergraduate and GDL law students with an interest in family law the opportunity to engage with a current topical family law issue.

Two winners will be chosen, with each winner having the chance to undertake a day’s marshalling with a member of the judiciary in either London or the North West. In addition, both winners will receive a free ticket to the annual Class Legal Financial Remedies Conference in London (held in October 2026) attended by a range of family justice professionals.  

The essay title is 'To what extent should domestic abuse be taken into account in financial remedy proceedings?'

All entries should be sent to frjeditor@classlegal.com with a deadline of 30 January 2026 for all competition entries. The winners will be announced on the FRJ website.

Competition outline 

• Open to any undergraduate, combined law student or GDL student from a University in England and Wales. 
• The maximum essay length is 1,500 words. You should use Oscola referencing, with footnotes and a references list. The footnotes and references list are not included in this word count (your footnotes must be limited to references and not used for further discussion). Entries over the word count will not be considered. 
• Any cases of plagiarism or collusion detected will be disqualified immediately. The essay must be all your own work and you must not use large language models (generative AI) for any part of it. 
• No feedback will be given on any essays and there will be no appeal process. 
• Prior to formal announcement of the winners and any prizes being taken, competition winners must provide documentary confirmation of their undergraduate/GDL status to confirm they are eligible. Entrants must be current GDL or undergraduate law students (including 'law with'/'law and' courses) on 30 January 2026 in order to be eligible.
• We reserve the right not to award one or both prizes if entries do not meet a sufficiently high standard.  
• The jury’s decision is final.  

 Entrants who may require financial support to attend the marshalling or the Class Legal conference should indicate this on their cover sheet. We do not take this into account in determining who wins, but it means that if you win we will be in touch to discuss your financial needs.