Sarah Conrad is the third Fijian female called to the Bar of England and Wales through the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple.
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges in London, England and to be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, a person must belong to one of these Inns.
Ms Conrad, who is originally from Sigatoka, graduated with a 2.1 law degree (LLB) from the University of Buckingham in England in 2021.
She later joined City Law School in London on the Bar Vocational Studies program.
After completing a year of Bar School and passing the UK Bar Exams, she is now admitted as a Barrister to the Courts of England and Wales and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Public International Law (PIL) and International Arbitration.
“Today is a proud day not just for myself but also for my hometown Sigatoka in Fiji,” said the proud Nadroga lass on Thursday, November 24.
“I fly our noble blue banner high. “Today (Thursday) I demonstrate that we Fijians are just as capable as anyone else, even if it may appear as though the odds are stacked against us.”
The Inner Temple has been home to barristers and judges for the past 500 years.
The site was originally the headquarters for the order of the Knights Templar, where they built a monastery and the famous round New Temple Church, based on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
The Templars protected Christian pilgrims visiting the City of Jerusalem.
Since 1547, 12 Fijians have been successfully called as Barristers to the Bar of England and Wales through The Inner Temple and Ms Conrad is now the 13th.
“We are resilient by nature, this coupled with determination and a positive can do attitude creates that winning mind set.
“If you believe you can and you will, however, if you believe you can’t then you won’t. It all begins and ends with your mindset.”
John Kenneth Murray Ross was the first to be called in 1900, the second was Lieutenant Francis Cyril Gerard Brooke called in 1907. Cyril Francis was a Lieutenant in the armed constabulary in Fiji and his father was commandant of the local forces in Fiji. The third was Godfrey Ernest Garrick (1905) and the fourth was Geoffrey Joseph Marks (1949).
Since the 1950s there were eight further called members and only three females, one of whom was Nazhat Shameem Khan, called in 1983 now Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
Notable members of the The Inner Temple include Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru – the first Prime Minister of India; Ivy Williams – the first woman called to the Bar; Elizabeth Lane – the first female High Court judge; Lady Justice Butler-Sloss – the first female Lord Justice of Appeal; Rosalyn Higgins – the first female judge elected to the International Court of Justice; Lord Justice Birkett – Nuremberg Trials; and AD Patel – founder and leader of the National Federation Party.
