UN post for law graduate

Former Essex Law School student Chad Blackman has been made Barbados' Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Other International Organisations in Geneva.

Ambassador Blackman graduated with an LLB in Law in 2014 and an LLM in International Trade Law in 2016 and has since forged an impressive career. 

Prior to his appointment to the UN, Ambassador Blackman worked as a consulting attorney with an international law firm where he advised on international trade and tax matters. Shortly after, he became a partner of advisory firm Global Partners International, where he lead the firm's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Advisory team of experts and advised international clients on World Trade Organization (WTO) and Dispute Settlement matters.

More recently, Ambassador Blackman acted as the Campaign Manager for one of Barbados’ current MPs Charles Griffith during the historic 30-0 election victory of the Barbados Labour Party, which ushered in the country's first female Prime Minister in May 2018. 

Ambassador Blackman described his time at Essex as essential in preparing him for these endeavours; his studies equipping him with a "firm command of the law from a truly global perspective".  

Looking back fondly on his time at Essex, Ambassador Blackman described how one of his proudest moments was as founding president of the University of Essex Bar Society, when he helped facilitate the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Bar Society and the Commonwealth Students’ Association at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London. This enabled Essex law Students to offer legal advice to tertiary students across the Commonwealth and saw Ambassador Blackman awarded the much coveted International Student of the Year Award 2014.

Proud of his Essex heritage, Ambassador Blackman said: “The Essex School of Law and the wider Essex family has forever shaped my life and I am eternally grateful and honoured to have been trained by this global institution that prepares its students for leadership in every sphere.”