Miller Hookem has won the prestigious Diana Princess of Wales Scholarship for the Bar course from the Hon’ble Society of Middle Temple.
Miller (BA Law, 2021-24) comes from especially difficult personal circumstances. He was raised by a single teenage mother on a council estate in Hull. His father had served many years in prison before he was born, which had a tremendous impact on young Miller’s mind. But Miller turned these adversities to something positive – a deep rooted passion for the study of the law. He was the first in his family to attend university, and to finish sixth form education. He attended a non-selective state secondary school where he achieved the highest grades in the school’s history.
The application process for the Scholarship involved both a written component and an interview, with the former being the bulk of the process. In addition to querying about questions such as work experience, mini-pupillages, court visits and so on, it also asked about an area of law the candidate would choose to reform and the qualities that make him a great barrister.
Miller was able to successfully answer these questions, given the regularity with which he had participated in moot court competitions and mock trials whilst in Cambridge and beyond. He was also the recipient of the Boin Prize for academic attainment. Miller had also shown his academic bent of mind having published an article in the Clare College Law Journal. ‘I set out my non-traditional route to the bar and I spun (what some would consider) disadvantages into resilience, people skills, and open-mindedness that I have acquired from life’, Miller said triumphantly, adding how rigorous the interview process was.
Speaking of his success, his Director of Studies, Dr Poorna Mysoor said: “It fills me with immense pride to see Miller grow from strength to strength. He was part of the first cohort of men we accepted as undergraduates in 2021, which makes him one of the first male law graduates to earn the BA Law degree from the College. Miller has scripted a truly uplifting story of perseverance as he journeyed from the council estate to the Bar, while passing through Cambridge along the way!”