Barriers to the Bar
August 2nd, 2007I have been busy of late, and have failed to update this blog with work I have been doing with The Willows High School which is in the Tremorfa area of Cardiff. In June, I met a GCSE Law student who was completing a Work Placement with staff at Cardiff Crown Court. He was bright, articulate and interested in the process, so I invited him to join me for a week’s Work Experience in Chambers. Since that week, I was joined by one of his classmates for a week in July.
By complete co-incidence, John Humphries visited the school as part of a series of reports into social mobility that were broadcast on the Today progamme. He interviewed some members of the Law class. They sounded keen and uninhibited by the possibility that there were barriers to their progress as lawyers of the future.
These pupils are lucky to have a highly-motivated former practitioner as their teacher. She firmly believes that background should be no barrier to a legal career. The pupils who joined me for the week seemed genunine in their interest and appreciation of the insight they gained into work as a barrister. To give pupils a personal experience of a potential future career at the Bar is worth a dozen seminars and talks, and is worth a thousand Government initatives that are often so much hot air, however well-intentioned.
The Bar organises many formal schemes for young people, but I think that there should always be room for personal initative and informal arrangments. Some may say that GCSE pupils are too young for work experience in Chambers. I disagree. If we get their attention and catch their imagination before school leaving age, then the likelihood that they will pursue a legal career increases.
I got the impression that there was real optimism amongst law students at The Willows. Let’s continue to give them the support they deserve.
