We are pleased to announce that Hannah Gilliland, barrister at 5RB, is our Next Generation Media Lawyer of the Month (December)! Congratulations Hannah. 

Called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2022, Hannah Gilliland is a barrister at 5RB. Since taking tenancy in 2023, Hannah has been developing a busy practice across all areas of media law including defamation, privacy, harassment and data protection. This year she has been instructed on multiple led cases and has acted unled in the County Court. She also gives pre-publication advice to various newspapers and publishers including the Daily Mail and the Sun. Hannah was recently awarded the prestigious Pegasus Scholarship, a scholarship run by the Inns of Court. The scholarship saw her travel to Washington DC to observe the American court system.

Prior to joining 5RB, Hannah studied Human, Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge followed by the Graduate Diploma in Law and the Bar Professional Training Course at City, University of London. Hannah was a visiting lecturer in tort law at City, University of London for the 2021-22 academic year.

Find out more about Hannah’s journey into media law below: 

What made you decide to become a lawyer? And why a barrister?

I was an avid reader when I was younger, and I always enjoyed writing and arguing my point of view in an essay. This lent itself well to law and that seemed like the natural next step for me. At university, I carefully considered becoming a solicitor. I did various vacation schemes and thought seriously about making this my career. During this time however, I also learnt about becoming a barrister. The academic nature of the job, the oral advocacy and the self-employment all attracted me to the profession. I was also lucky to meet one of my best friends at university who was thinking about becoming a barrister. She encouraged me and pulled me alongside her on this journey.

Why did you decide to specialise in media law?

As a lawyer we have to read large amounts of information and I wanted the bundles I would be reading to be interesting. Defamation, privacy and data protection all involve humans with fascinating and sometimes incredulous facts. I truly enjoy reading the documents and thinking about the cases, it is never dull.  

You recently won the Pegasus Scholarship. Tell us more and what does that entail? 

The Pegasus Scholarship is a scholarship run by the Inns of Court which sends junior barristers under seven years call from England and Wales to work in different jurisdictions around the world. The scholarship was established with the aim of increasing our understanding of how law is practised globally and to forge links between future lawyers. To be awarded the scholarship junior barristers need to submit an application form with references and go through an interview process. I applied for the “Washington DC placement”, a placement which I now know is called the “Washington DC placement” in name alone; I travelled not only to Washington DC but also to Sacramento, San Francisco, Phoenix, Fairfax, Annapolis and Chicago. During the trip, I learnt a lot about the American legal system. I particularly enjoyed watching jury selection, depositions and moot courts all of which we do not have in England and Wales to the same extent. I also enjoyed observing different advocacy styles, for example, appellate advocacy in the US is constrained by time limits and therefore lends itself to more succinct arguments. I am excited to apply the knowledge and techniques I have learnt in the US to my work at home.

What advice would you give to aspiring lawyers? 

I have two pieces of advice for aspiring lawyers. The first is that it can be easy in the position of an aspiring lawyer to look at lawyers’ websites and to think that everyone has had a smooth ride getting to the position they are now in (I know I was certainly guilty of doing this). In my experience however, that is rarely the case. My journey to the Bar has taken many turns and has relied on meeting people at the right time, having a support network of other aspiring lawyers, and being flexible. My advice would therefore be to be adaptable; things might not work out exactly as you had planned but that may not always be a bad thing.

My second piece of advice is that it is important to have fun with your career wherever it ends up going. Law is a time consuming and demanding profession which could easily consume your entire life if you let it. It is therefore essential to find the fun and humour in the job and to try and set boundaries with work.

In an alternative universe where lawyers didn’t exist and every job was paid exactly the same – what would be your job and why? 

If I could pick my dream job and money were no object, I would be an author. However, I would also need several further attributes - I would need a better imagination, a unique writing style and more patience for thrashing out a plot! Being able to spend my life reading and writing (and not always about law) would be a dream.