Gabrielle Turnquest, 18, will become the youngest person in the history of the English and Welsh legal system to become a barrister — in name at least — when she is called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn today.
Turnquest, who is from Florida, completed the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) at the University of Law, having done the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) when she was just 17 years old.
Prior to that she had finished her undergraduate degree in psychology at Liberty University in Virginia aged just 16…
Historically, a trainee lawyer had to be 21 years old to be eligible for call to the Bar, but this requirement was removed in 2009 when the Consolidated Regulations of the four Inns of Court were replaced by the Bar Training Regulations. The average age of a student graduating from the BPTC is 27.
For now, Turnquest doesn’t plan to do pupillage in the UK, opting to return to the USA this autumn to continue studying with a view to becoming a fashion law specialist.
