3RB Awards the Seventh Nicholls Prize for Advocacy

Congratulations to Yaade Joba, winner of the 2024 Gray’s Inn Moot Final, and to Eysha Gill who was first runner up.  We are delighted to award them the seventh Nicholls Prize, with £1,000 awarded to Yaade and £500 to Eysha

The final took place on Monday 8 July 2024.  3RB was represented by Rachel Barnes KC.  We would like to acknowledge the sterling work of the Gray’s Inn Education and Training Department in relation to this event and their entire educational programme.

About the Winners

Yaade Joba
Yaade was awarded a First-Class classification in his LLB undergraduate degree from the University of Nottingham and was awarded a Distinction in his LLM postgraduate degree from the University of Bristol.

After finishing his LLM, he spent one year working as a paralegal at Leigh Day Solicitors. He worked on a large Employment Tribunal claim on behalf of private hire vehicle drivers for their right to holiday pay and the national minimum wage. During that time, he also volunteered at Islington Legal Advice Centre and as a trade union representative for the Cleaners and Allied Independent Workers Union.

Yaade was awarded the 2023 11KBW Scholarship for Black Students on the Bar Course by 11KBW and the Holt Scholarship awarded by Gray’s Inn.

From September 2024,  Yaade will be undertaking the Bachelor of Civil Law course at the University of Oxford.

Eysha Gill
As an ethnic Indian born in Malaysia, Eysha grew up in Hong Kong and left to read Jurisprudence at Regent’s Park College, Oxford University.  Graduating in 2023, Eysha then undertook the Bar Practice Course in London, on a scholarship from the University of Law, where she served as President of the Bar Society.  She was awarded a high distinction upon the recent completion of her Bar exams.

Whilst finishing her LLM and applying for pupillage, Eysha plans to gain further experience of the Bar at Pantheon Chambers in Hong Kong, where she will be assisting barristers specialising in family and civil law.

We wish them both every success with their careers at the Bar.

About the Nicholls Prize
Our prize was founded in 2018 in memory of Clive Nicholls KC.  Clive died in February 2017, aged 84.  He had been a member of Chambers for 60 years and was Head of Chambers from 1994 until 2010.  He was still a valued member of Chambers, active in advisory work well beyond his 80^th birthday.  Clive was called to the Bar in 1957.  He had graduated with his twin brother, Colin Nicholls KC, who is still a member of chambers, from Trinity College, Dublin and both became leading lights in their respective fields after joining Chambers.  Clive took silk in 1980, he sat as a Recorder of the Crown Court between 1984 and 1999 and became a Bencher of Gray’s Inn in 1989.

Clive’s was a stellar career.  He had a wide range of work and was able to apply his mind to legal issues in a number of disciplines.  He specialised in extradition and the roll-call of cases in which he appeared speaks for itself – Nielsen (a landmark case which overturned 100 years of extradition law), Pinochet, Osman, and many other high profile matters.  He appeared in courts all over the world and was internationally acknowledged as a leader in his field.

Throughout Clive’s practice, and in his 16 years as Head of Chambers, he was a genuine father-figure and mentor, ever humorous, radiating dynamism and energy beyond his years and always making himself available to help other members of Chambers. He embodied and exemplified all the virtues of the Bar as a profession: he was a man of integrity who took great pleasure in his work and whose courtesy to fellow barristers never wavered, even in the most hard fought of cases.

We are proud to associate our award with the Gray’s Inn Moot Final, continuing a tradition we started with the DuCann Advocacy Prize, which ran from 2008 to 2017 and honouring the memory of Clive Nicholls KC.

7th August 2024