BIUCAC (British and Irish University Commercial Awareness Competition) was created back in 2020 by a group of undergraduate law students at Essex University, along with Denis Viskovich. They were looking to level the playing field – giving an opportunity for non-Russell Group university students to showcase their talents. BIUCAC is now the largest commercial awareness competition in the UK.

There is fantastic engagement from firms in this competition with prizes unusually being offered to those in the top 12 of the competition. First prize is given by Fieldfisher and consists of:

• A place on a summer vacation scheme at any one of three UK offices in 2026 (Birmingham, London or Manchester)
• A lunch and networking session with a couple of our trainees and the graduate recruitment team
• A personalised CV review, mock interview and assessment centre training with the early careers team

You can read up on the competition, which consists of four rounds on their website – registration is open now – however you can also sign up for a series of evening talks (on Zoom) from firms associated with the competition, as well as the BIUCAC team throughout the first half of October. A rundown is below:

6th October

• 7-8: White & Case (structure and key components of leveraged finance transactions)
• 8-9:30: BIUCAC/Generative AI

9th October

• 7-8: Fieldfisher (the role of securitisation in the lead-up to the global financial crisis)
• 8-9:30: BIUCAC/Tariffs & trade wars

13th October

7-8: Ashurst (global markets)

8-9:30: BIUCAC/Competition Law and Big Tech

16th October

7-8: Travers Smith (importance of commerciality in legal practice)

8-9:30: BIUCAC/Mergers and acquisitions