No getting away from the law for the Clews

There's no getting away from the law in the Clews household. Kit Clews has his own practice where Jenny is a legal executive and in her first year of a law degree at Waikato, while their daughter Laura is a second year law student.

Laura won the annual Swarbrick Dixon prize last year for topping her Legal Systems class and she also convinced her mother, who'd always wanted to do a degree, to enrol at university too. "I try giving Mum tips, tell her not to worry about reading certain things, but she won't listen. She's doing it her way," says Laura.

Already, Laura has some work experience, working at her father's firm part-time doing trusts, wills and gifting "the more straightforward work", but it's criminal law that she's most interested in long term, though she also enjoys property law and contracts.

"Once you start studying law you see how different aspects of it touch so many areas of day to day life. You listen to the news more attentively and understand much more clearly what and why things are happening."

A law degree takes four years to complete, and longer if students decide to do honours, which is what Laura is considering. She'd also like to do some of her papers off shore, possibly in Chicago or at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark where the Waikato Law School has exchange agreements.

To help finance her study Laura works as a Waikato University student ambassador, going to schools and telling students about studying at Waikato and she also works at a local surf shop. "You have to manage your time, but it can definitely be done."

Laura likes the idea of being a judge one day but that's a long way off. Before that she plans to do some postgraduate study once she's finished her Bachelor of Laws and then maybe work in the United Kingdom before returning to New Zealand to work.