There’s no doubt that Gabrielle Turnquest‘s achievement in becoming the youngest person to be called to the Bar in 600 years is impressive. But is the 18 year-old — who is shortly to start a masters degree in fashion law in the US — really one of the 25 most influential Londoners aged under 25? Well, the Evening Standard thinks so, this morning naming the University of Law BPTC graduate in its 2013 list of ‘London’s hottest 25 under-25s’…
Here’s what the paper wrote about Turnquest:
Anyone who is capable of finishing an undergraduate degree aged just 16, as Turnquest did, and then completing the GDL and BPTC before their 18th birthday, is clearly exceptionally bright and motivated.
But, lest we forget, Turnquest has never actually practised law, and can only be described as a barrister because of a strange loophole in the regulations that allows BPTC graduates to bill themselves as lawyers before they have found a pupillage.
Which isn’t to say that she wouldn’t make a good barrister, one day. At the moment, though, Turnquest is just a very young law graduate whose life is being made more difficult by the huge amount of slightly idiotic media attention that has been focused upon her.