Leeds Uni law student uses LLB skills to win court battle against former employer

Studied Employment Rights Act and presented case to judge

A University of Leeds law student in his second year of the LLB has gone viral with his courtroom success.

Hazem Ezzeldin explained in a LinkedIn post, that has garnered over 7,000 likes, how he had been notified of a claim made against him by his former employer, a trampoline park, where he had worked during his gap year.

According to Ezzeldin, the trampoline park claimed that they had overpaid the law student during the furlough scheme period.

He decided to capitalise on what he had learned so far in the LLB and set about preparing “four points of defence” after trawling through the Employment Rights Act 1996.

Although initially “anxious” about the prospect of going to court and having to represent himself, Ezzeldin’s perspective on the situation quickly changed.

The penultimate-year law student told Legal Cheek:

“I was immediately reminded that this is what I am supposed to be doing a couple of years from now when I become a lawyer. I started looking at the experience as a privilege more than a challenge. The benefits that this case allowed me to gain meant a lot more to me than whether it was ruled to be in mine or the claimants’ favour.”

He is “very pleased” the judge had found in his favour, noting in his post: “I can proudly say that I have won my first-ever case!”

Ezzeldin details that after the hearing “it felt like I have done everything I possibly could have during my preparation for the hearing and now it was in the judge’s hands. I was just excited to see which way it was going to go and why”.

Going forward, Ezzeldin has his eyes on corporate law. “I am working hard to secure a training contract and then become a corporate solicitor at a Magic Circle law firm!”

This is not the first time a law student has come up trumps in court. In December last year, East Anglia uni law student Jack Simm successfully brought a claim for fraudulent misrepresentation against his then landlord.