Starting your practising period as a pupil barrister

Chairing this event: Amelia Clegg, Vice Chair of the Young Barristers' Committee

Amelia is a dual-qualified English barrister and New York attorney and practices at the employed Bar at BCL Solicitors LLP. She was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2017 and was admitted to the New York Bar in 2021. In 2018, Amelia completed her pupillage and subsequently took tenancy at 23 Essex Street in London. Amelia spent 3 years working as a litigation associate at an AM100 law firm in New York City, where she gained broad experience in state and federal litigation, with an emphasis on commercial litigation, white-collar criminal defence litigation and investigations.

Kate Lewis, Pendragon Chambers

Kate joined Pendragon Chambers in August of 2024 following successful completion of pupillage with the Crown Prosecution Service and time as a Tenant at Albion Chambers.

Prior to a career at the criminal Bar, Kate served in the British Army after joining straight from school and arrived at her first unit in Germany during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Following her military service, she travelled around the UK and Cyprus in various civilian roles including investigating international fraud, teaching sport and fitness to British Army trainees and providing legal advice to a University Health Board on their involvement in the Infected Blood Inquiry.

Kate is regularly instructed in complex private family law matters and recently expanded her practice to include public family cases and regulatory law including police misconduct, medical professional misconduct and sport regulation.

Kate has a keen interest in advocating for Armed Forces personnel and veterans and can be instructed for court martials.

Lauren Maires, St John's Buildings

Lauren is a family law barrister; she practises in all areas of children law. She joined St John's Buildings as a tenant in October 2023 following successful completion of her pupillage under the supervision of Ginnette Fitzharris and Jonathan Taylor. 

Chloe Reddock, Barrister, Kings Chambers

Chloe recently completed her pupillage at Kings Chambers in Manchester where she is now a tenant. She specialises in public law/Court of Protection. Prior to joining Kings, Chloe worked as a Legal Officer in Amsterdam for an NGO which specialises in freedom of expression and anti-discrimination laws and was selected for the first paid internship with the UK Supreme Court.

Mariam Diaby, Policy Analyst: Diversity and Inclusion and CSR

Mariam joined the Bar Council in November 2021 as a Policy Assistant, where she worked across the four policy teams in the research, development and implementation of policy initiatives and projects. She holds a first-class undergraduate law degree (LLB) and an LLM in Transnational Law from King’s College London.

She has previously worked as a research assistant at Royal Holloway, University of London’s Department of Law and Criminology and as a freelance legal researcher and writer. In May 2022, Mariam moved to the Regulatory Affairs, Law Reform and Ethics team as a Policy Analyst, where she focuses on Law Reform. In this role, she is the executive of the Law Reform Committee as well as lead on the Law Reform Essay Competition and Law Reform Lecture.

Mariam is also an Ethical Adviser on the Ethical Enquiries Service.