Big Voice London

9th September 2015

Lord Justice Vos

Introduction
1.

May I first thank Victoria Anderson and Emily Lanham for inviting me
to speak tonight? It is a great pleasure to be able to say something that
may help dedicated students, keen to follow a pathway towards a
career in the legal profession.

2.

I am always happy to speak about social mobility, a subject that is very

close to my heart. I was Chairman of the Social Mobility Foundation
until 2011, and that is an organisation that has done great work in
providing inspiration to talented students from less privileged
backgrounds in Years 11 and 12. Its objective is to provide the
information, mentoring and internship opportunities to bright students
that they would not otherwise obtain. It operates in all professional
fields, not just the law.

3.

I want to talk tonight about the importance of Big Voice London and
organisations like it. As you will hear, Big Voice London has a number
of flagship projects that include the quite unique Model Law
Commission and the Supreme Court mooting competition. But what is
less often spoken about is why these projects are so important.

4.

My view has always been that the barriers to entry to the legal
profession are far too high for those from less privileged backgrounds
who have no family background in the law or in other professions.

5.

The main barriers are financial ones, lack of proper advice and
guidance in schools about how to get into the law, lack of available
work experience or internships for the less privileged, so that their
aspirations can be kindled and their drive harnessed, and the
discriminatory selection procedures that still exist for some training
contracts, pupillages and tenancies.

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09 September 2015

6.

Projects that get young people involved with legal thinking at an early
stage can make a real impression in allowing their participants to
overcome at least the last three of these barriers. The financial ones
are perhaps more difficult.

7.

But first, participation in mooting and in projects like the Model Law
Commission enables young talented students to meet people in the
legal profession and get some of the information, advice and guidance
they need. Believe me, the more privileged students get this advice
anyway from the uncles and family friends already in the profession.

8.

From making contacts by participating in these projects, students will

stand a much better chance of being able to arrange appropriate
internships that everyone now needs if they are to enter the legal
profession. I still think that there should be restrictions on offering
internships outside a regulated scheme to which everyone can have
access but I think we are a long way from that right now.

9.

Thirdly, the selection procedures adopted particularly at the Bar

demand a high level of insight into the profession you are trying to
join. The earlier you participate in projects like those run by Big
Voice, the greater your chances of acquiring that insight.

Why is this so important?

10.

One of the things that is very much misunderstood in the legal

profession is why projects like Big Voice London matter so much.

11.

We need to be clear about the reasons.

12.

The fact of the matter is that talented young professionals from diverse
backgrounds have a huge amount to offer to the quality of the
professions. Privileged people from good, but often very similar,
social classes and educational institutions can certainly perform well in
the law and in other professions. But they tend to see and solve
problems in homogeneous ways. There are many different ways to
solve problems which is what lawyers do. If the UK legal profession
is to be world beating as it has been up to now it needs to offer the
problem solving abilities of people who see the world from all angles.
That means recruiting people from all backgrounds across the
spectrum.

13.

The legal profession just like the judiciary by the way also needs to
have people from all parts of society and from a range of ethnic and
social backgrounds if it is to have the confidence of the public that it
serves. Public confidence is crucial to any profession but particularly

in the law, because clients do not like being lectured, and they want to
be sure that the representation they are getting comes from the real
world, not just from one tiny sector of it.

How many mentors do you need?

14.

The next point I would like to make is that there is common

misconception that, once you have a mentor in the legal profession,
you will be alright. That is nonsense. Privileged students have dozens
of mentors in different fields parents, aunts, uncles, and family
friends all pursuing different top occupations providing advice as and
when sought. Less privileged students get none of that, and we need to
make sure that the opportunities that frequent and caring mentoring
provides are available to all those who are able enough to make use of
it, whatever their economic or ethnic background.

15.

That is why it is important for students to have available numerous

projects of the kind Big Voice London operates, so they can meet
lawyers and judges and participate in legal activities, and start to learn
and think like lawyers in time to match up to some of the rigorous
selection procedures I have been talking about.

Conclusions
16.

When I attend functions of this kind, I am always massively impressed

by the quality of the students and of the available pool of talent. It is
vital that we do not waste that talent just because it comes from a
background that has no experience in or familiarity with the law.

17.

I am sure that neither the profession nor the judiciary does enough to
encourage and nurture this talent pool.

18.

There need to be a much greater push to make a real difference; to

establish a truly level playing field, where the barriers to entry are the
right barriers namely academic ability and aptitude for the job, and
have nothing to do with money, ethnicity or social background. The
legal profession should be judging everyone on merit and merit alone.

19.

But what we can all do is support organisations that exist in order to

give less privileged students the chance to be exposed to legal thinking
and legal creativity. They give less privileged students a real

opportunity to learn about the law at a crucial age and at a crucial

stage.
20.

Can I ask that everyone here does all they can financially and in other
ways to promote the projects that Big Voice London has run so
successfully thus far.

Lord Justice Vos

9th September 2015