Hoda Barakat, 1988

Hoda Barakat read Natural Sciences at Clare before switching to Law in her second year. She now owns a legal consultancy firm in Dubai.

Who was your greatest Clare influence and why?

There were many great people but probably Professor Colin Turpin (RIP) is most memorable for me. At one stage, he was my academic tutor, my Constitutional Law lecturer and the author of the leading textbook on Constitutional Law. He was a lovely person which made it all more memorable.

Hoda's Story

When I started my time at Clare, I would never have guessed I would be where I am today. In fact, I started my time as a Natural Scientist but soon decided that Natural Sciences wasn’t for me, largely due to the experimental side of the subject. I was lucky enough that the Cambridge tripos system allowed me to change subjects in year 2. Law had always interested me and due to my science background, I was quite analytical and so I converted to Law and never looked back.

In my first year, I couldn’t believe the number of sports clubs and social societies that existed and I joined several. They were great and I made some of my best friends to date through those clubs and societies. They were a great opportunity to do fun things and to meet like minded people across the whole University.

The 3 years at Clare were lovely in every way, whether it was the leading professors, the great peer group, the great accommodation, the lovely University city or just the beautiful college, I enjoyed every day I spent there.

Graduating from Clare with Law meant that I had a lot of great career options in law or out of law. I considered banking and consulting but decided to specialise in intellectual property (IP) law following what looked like a very interesting training/job opportunity that was advertised in Clare’s newsletter. Despite the recession at the time, because of my Cambridge degree, I managed to get a training job in the City of London immediately and went on to specialise in IP. I later moved to Dubai (United Arab Emirates) in 1995 after meeting my now husband and I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time. The UAE had just enacted IP laws in 1992 and I was one of the first to be in Dubai who had any IP expertise. I established and led the IP department at a then small law firm which became the largest non-affiliated law firm in the region.

Since then, I took time off before establishing my own boutique legal consultancy firm. This is in addition to the non profit work that I do with several local and international IP organisations.

I believe that my time at Clare served me well in giving me some fantastic University years which I remember fondly both academically and socially and which also gave me an amazing platform to start my career. I only have fond memories of my days at Clare.