Skye Blackshaw - 2023 Middle Temple

I am delighted to accept this award and thank you all for your support.

For as long as I can remember I have dreamed of a career at the Bar and studied an undergraduate law degree at the University of Birmingham before coming back to London to study the Bar  Course. I made the decision to join Middle Temple when I started the Bar Course and I am forever grateful for my decision.

I have served as both Vice-President and President of the Middle Temple Students’ Association, organising, hosting and attending events regularly. I am particularly proud of the MTSA Christmas Calendar that I created and organised and which ensured that each day throughout December students were given a quote or word of advice from a different prominent member of the Inn. It was important to me to create something that would support students without legal connections to receive invaluable advice from some of Middle Temple’s brightest minds.

I have been co-opted back into the International Sub-Committee to continue my work representing the junior side of the Inn. I continued work as a barmaid after the end of my Bar Course, to fund my place on the Middle Temple Amity Visit, something I helped organise during committee meetings and both volunteered and represented the young bar internationally during the visit.

Outside committee work, I am mentoring several students through their applications and interviews for Middle Temple scholarships.  

A career at the bar is challenging, but I am focused on securing a pupillage in the future and want to continue to embrace the wonderful community in which I now find myself.