The barriers between the different parts of my life can finally come down.
I am a barrister, specialising in employment law (including, appropriately enough, equality, diversity and discrimination) at Old Square Chambers in London. You can find me at
From Monday next (15 August 2011) I will be practising as 'Ms Robin Moira White'. I used to be 'Mr Robin Mark White', although I hardly ever used the 'Mark'. Advice was that it might be best in terms of gender change, to pick a new and very feminine name. However, 'Robin' is gender-ambiguous and I have been 'Robin' for a very long time, and also, that is the name I have practised law under for 17 years. I decided to change my middle name to a female name starting with 'M' which would allow me to keep my personal e-mail address, signature etc etc. Last September I spent an afternoon in a cafe in St Ives, Cornwall, working through the 'baby names' websites to see what 'M' name suited. It needed to be reasonably short to fit in with 'Robin' and 'White'. However, the likes of 'Mary' or 'Maria' were too religious for me. 'Moira' just seemed right. Apparently it is Celtic in origin and means 'fate' or 'destiny'.
On Thursday of last week (10 August) 'The Times' newspaper in London published an article about my changing gender as a barrister and the wonderful help and support I have received from colleagues, staff, friends and clients. That made transition so much easier for me. Up there as well is the fantastic job that Dr Bart did on my facial surgery in Belgium. The look gets better every day, already wonderful and it is not quite 6 weeks since surgery.
I will be keeping up the blog whenever I have anything interesting to say, so keep following.
lol
Robin 'Moira' White
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