Proud family members watched on as one “extremely deserving individual” was Called to the Bermuda Bar yesterday.

In a ceremony at Commercial Court 1, lawyer Laquita Zuill, 50, thanked her family members and friends for their support in an emotional speech read before Chief Justice Ian Kawaley.

The motion was put forth by Simone Smith-Bean, of Smith Bean and Co, who described her pupil as being a valuable asset to her firm.

“I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to call such a deserving individual to our illustrious profession today that is only membered by some of the best and brightest legal minds in the world,” she said.

“I was fortunate to become acquainted with Laquita shortly after I opened my chambers in May 2015. She was looking for a chambers to provide her with a pupillage so that she could fulfill her goal of becoming a barrister.

“I was hesitant at first because I wasn’t sure what I was getting as a pupil but I can say now that it was the best decision that I have ever made.”

Speaking to The Royal Gazette after the ceremony, Mrs Zuill said: “I feel relieved that it is over but overwhelmed and at the outpouring of people’s support in connection with this. I am grateful.”

Mrs Zuill attended Berkeley Institute, and graduated in 1982. She began her legal studies at the Bermuda College and the University of Canterbury programme in 2007, graduating at the top of her class with a certificate of law in 2009.

She then went on to attend Nottingham Trent University, at Nottingham Law School, in the UK.

She graduated with second class honours, first division, and finished her certificate at the University of Law at Bloomsbury in London, where she earned her graduate diploma in legal practice with a commendation.

After an “exhausting” seven years of study she took a year off before beginning her pupillage at the firm Smith Bean and Co, which she described as being “extremely rewarding”.

She learnt the ins and outs of a law firm culminating in the steps into the next chapter of her life.