Oliver Lock

• Intern, Transamerica Reinsurance

  I am a third year undergraduate of Medieval and Modern History at the University of Birmingham. As a very keen actor, I co-founded a young person's Shakespeare theatre group that achieved critical acclaim at the RSC and the Longborough Opera Festival, and have acted in a variety of roles both in and out of university. I co-directed, co-produced and acted in a successful production at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2009. I am a keen traveller and volunteer, and spent the majority of my gap year in southern Africa working with sick animals to rehabilitate them back into the wild, while spending the last part of it on a four week residential cookery course. I have developed extensive business and leadership skills through my two-year Presidency of the University dramatics society, 'Article19' and have aspirations to attend the GDL in September 2011.  

  In no doubt of my ambition to become a lawyer, I began at an early age to secure work experience in a variety of different practice areas. Choosing to approach the profession from a more unique position, I decided to read History at university, which requires strong powers of analysis, intellectual rigour and the ability to process a large amount of information quickly. It has drawn upon, and matured, my powers of reasoning, as I use a variety of sources to weigh up evidence that I use to reach conclusions concisely and clearly. I aim to study the GDL in September 2011, and am in the process of extensive research as I prepare for the season of applications to law firms to secure a vacation scheme, open day or training contract.