Head of School, Professor Joanne Conaghan gave the welcome address commending the generosity and energy of so many Law School alumni who are now engaged with the Law School:

'The value you, our alumni, bring to the Law School goes beyond the opportunities you provide students to learn and excel. Your support builds a student's  sense of self-worth knowing that busy, high achieving people are willing to invest time and energy in them. Your loyalty, hard work and  commitment inspires generation after generation of students to be the very best they can be. It is this dedication that will see us grow our alumni community and, with it, our ambitions for the Law School to become a significant global player in the legal educational arena. We welcome and encourage alumni young and old, in the UK and overseas, who wish to help us nurture the students.'

Alumni are now engaged in a wide range of activities. They organise student workshops, provide one-on-one mentoring, assist with the Law Clinic and enrich the teaching curriculum with lectures as part of the Distinguished Law Alumni Guest Lecture series. Alumni contributed to e-upgrade and refurbish the Wills Law Library which was re-opened by our Chancellor in 2013. Others have established scholarships for students. Alumni also work in partnership with the UBLC which now has a dedicated Alumni Rep, Mark Turner.

Sam Unsworth, President of the University of Bristol Law Club underlined just how important the alumni community has become:

'It is critical to graduate with the skills that employers are looking for. Having real time access to guidance from alumni that have achieved in their own careers is so important. I can't overstate that.'

Looking forward, Dan Schaffer, Chair of the Law School Advisory Board, who helped organise the event, believes that more and more alumni will now be inspired to come forward to offer their time and share their experience and skills with students so that the next generation of graduates will also go on succeed.

The evening was rounded off by a most entertaining after dinner speech from Mr Justice Mostyn LLB 1979. He had his audience in stitches with, amongst other things, a rendition of a witty sketch from the 1978 Law Club Xmas Review. With the event such a success, plans are now afoot for a reunion for recent graduation years to take place in June 2016 in Bristol. We will announce details on the Law School website.