That is me. I am the Woman on a Mission.
My name is Angelina Nurse. I am 22 years old and I live in Sunny Southend. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the area, Southend is a small seaside town in Essex which is notorious for NEVER being sunny. It is probably better known for being the last stop on the C2C rail line out of London.
I have an undergraduate degree in law from Nottingham Trent University and I am a current student at BPP Law School London studying the LLM Legal (Bar) Course. This is essentially the barristers training course and a masters project lumped together.
My final year at university was cut short by...you guessed it...Covid-19. As a result, I have also been studying the bar course remotely. It comes with it's perks and its pitfalls, but one thing I know for sure is that it is most definitely where I am supposed to be. I have always been academic. There is something about being knowledgeable that makes me feel powerful. The knowledge I am learning on the bar course, well that is even more powerful, as it will give me the tools to give a voice to the voiceless.
I am an aspiring criminal and family law barrister. It is true what they say, there is no money in criminal law, but I have tried commercial/ chancery law and I just felt far too detached from the work that I was shadowing.
What then is my mission? Well, it is simple. It is to inspire and to educate.
For reasons unbeknown to me, information about the profession is and always has been difficult to get your hands on. I want to help people to overcome the first hurdle in becoming a barrister: understanding what the profession entails and what it takes in order to get there.
I am a first-generation university student and I have come from 'humble beginnings'. As a working class, female from Essex I want to help to inspire diversity at the bar. I want to be living proof that the profession is not limited to white, middle-class men.
It is important for people to remember that there is not a one size fits all approach to being a barrister or even to becoming a barrister. There is a very unique individual underneath those wigs and gowns, and there is no good reason that it could not be me or you.
The best advise I ever received was that you do not have to change yourself to succeed in a career at the bar, you just need to be willing to develop the necessary skills that make a good barrister.
I look forward to being able to use my experiences, even at such an early stage in my career, to educate and inspire you to embark on your own mission!
Until next time,
The Woman on a Mission.
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