Ibz Mo takes hit vlog to law school
Rising star Ibrahim Mohammed, known as Ibz Mo, is the latest legal ‘vlawger’ on our radar: he’s amassed a 123,000-strong YouTube following and is closing in on 11 million video views.
Mo is a graduate from the University of Cambridge where he studied human, social and political sciences and since then has enrolled on the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) at BPP University Law School, Cambridge.
In a vlog (below) the ‘study-tuber’ and education influencer, who regularly documents his study exploits on the video-sharing website in a down to earth way, opens up about why he switched from psychology to law, and explains what his career ambitions are. He also shares some of the misconceptions he has heard about a career in law.
“Law as a discipline or as a career is very inaccessible,” he begins, citing a previous Legal Cheek article which found the children of lawyers are 17 times more likely to become lawyers themselves. “Law, for me, I had no idea what the hell it was growing up.”
Mo came from humble beginnings: born and raised by a single parent in Hackney, East London, where he was state-school educated. He turned his life around after scoring two Bs, three Cs and two Ds at GCSE by achieving A*A*A at A-Level and going on to become the first in his family to go to university. From his A-Levels onwards Mo supported himself financially, undertaking jobs at call centres, M&S and Primark.
The British Pakistani started his YouTube channel just over three years ago to discuss some of the challenges he faced upon starting at Cambridge Uni, and to inspire prospective applicants. Indeed, Mo is passionate about diversity, inclusion and promoting access to education, and runs his own private tuition business.
Interestingly, the law student says it was his burgeoning YouTube business that kickstarted his ambition to become a lawyer. In the 20-minute clip Mo says he’d seek out the help from law students at his college in Cambridge when dealing with contracts from potential sponsors. In the pursuit to grow his business he went to workshops held by law firms Linklaters and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner where he mingled with trainees who introduced him to the world of corporate law.
His newfound career journey hasn’t come without setbacks. The vlogger applied and was rejected for multiple vacation schemes in his final year at university. His tutor sat him down upon graduation and told him not to pursue a career in law but one in media instead. And he received some “bad advice” from his peers, telling him to shave his beard, and to “calm down” as his “extrovert” personality may not be suited to corporate law.
But he persisted, and since then the diversity champ has undertaken a five-week legal internship with a law firm in Islamabad, Pakistan, handling cases from clinical negligence to murder. “This made me realise that this is the career for me,” he reflects. Mo has also completed a legal internship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
He wasn’t quite ready to get a training contract and commit to a law firm — “I still had so much to learn”. So he enrolled on the GDL, a year-long conversion course non-law grads must complete to train as a lawyer, to delve deeply into different areas of the law. “It’s a really applicable course,” he says, and has found his knowledge in contract comes in handy when dealing with YouTube sponsors.
He’s now applying for vacation schemes with the view to get a training contract to start in 2022. “Education will always be my final destination without a doubt,” he says on his intended career path, and is exploring different routes in order to get there.
“Some of the best leaders in the education world have a background in law. Law is such a multi-disciplinary subject that really tailors you to just be such an effective individual and, I think, a really great leader,” he says. “I’m trying to find my feet in the spectrum [between human rights and commercial law] with the end goal to end in law and education.”
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