A former St Mary's College student is blazing an academic trail in law and has now been hailed as one of the legal profession's high flyers of the future.

21-year-old Christopher Reid from Crosby graduated from University College London in the summer with a first class honours degree in law.

This was the first time in the university's history that a student had graduated with a clean sweep of first class marks in all ten papers in the final examinations.

Over the previous three years, Christopher was consistently the leading student on his course, and won a string of prizes and awards including a scholarship as the most outstanding undergraduate in the law faculty.

As a result of all this success, he was recently honoured as one of the country's top ten law graduates in the Financial Times British Graduate 100 Awards, which aim to identify the next generation of future leaders of the main professions.

St Mary's Head of Sixth Form, Daniel Magill, who was Christopher's public speaking and debating coach at the college, said: "Everyone at the school was delighted to hear about Christopher's long list of achievements since he left us three years ago.

"It was clear when he was here that he was destined for great things academically, and it's very pleasing that he has gone on to fulfil that promise in such an emphatic way."

Christopher's ambition is to become a barrister specialising in international commercial law, and he has now embarked on a one-year Bachelor of Law postgraduate degree at St Hugh's College, Oxford.

All his costs for this course will be covered by a special scholarship he has been awarded by the prestigious Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Christopher's father, John Reid, commented: "We are very grateful to St Mary's College and its staff. The school played a huge part in Christopher's development and helping him become the person he is now."

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