National finals next month
A junior lawyer at Gateley is gearing up for the final of national pageant Miss Grand UK 2026 next month.
Chloe Lake, a residential development lawyer based in the firm’s Reading office, will take to the stage in May. If she wins, she could become one of the first actively practising solicitors in the UK to take home a national pageant title.
It’s not Lake’s first foray into the pageant world. Legal Cheek previously reported on her run in Miss Universe Great Britain back in 2023, where she secured a top ten finish. This time, however, she returns to the competition as a qualified solicitor rather than a trainee.
Lake’s legal career follows a relatively conventional route. She graduated with a first-class law degree from De Montfort University before training at a Leicester-based firm and qualifying in November 2024. Less than a year later, she joined Gateley as an NQ in the residential development team, where she now advises on matters such as site acquisitions and development projects.
Her path into pageantry began much earlier. Lake first entered competitions as a teenager before stepping back to focus on her legal studies, later returning with the encouragement of colleagues, and even securing sponsorship from her firm.
Though pageantry and legal practice might appear worlds apart, Lake sees it as an extension of the same skillset.
“Both require confidence, communication, and the ability to engage an audience. For me, it’s about showing that there isn’t one way to build a legal career, and that professional and personal interests can sit alongside each other.”
The national final is set to take place in May, with the winner going on to represent the UK on the international stage. A victory would mark a rare crossover between the legal profession and the pageant circuit, and place Lake among a small number of practising solicitors to achieve national success in the latter.
She wouldn’t be the first law graduate to make waves in the pageant world. In 2018, Dee-Ann Kentish-Roger became the first Black woman in 66 years to be crowned Miss Universe Great Britain, later going on to serve as Anguilla’s Minister for Education and Social Development.