Socio-economic Barriers to entering the Legal Profession

Written by Ethan Khong

In the modern world of Netflix and anime, we have often been given an idealistic vision of

the legal profession as something open to anyone with the ability and ambition. From the

photographic memory of Mike Ross to the zealous advocacy of Phoenix Wright, many

students have dreamed of becoming top commercial solicitors or renowned barristers.

While significant progress has been made in recent years in widening access to both legal

professions, background still plays a significant role. Students from lower socio-economic

backgrounds do often face additional, often invisible, barriers when trying to enter the legal

profession.

The Cost

The pathway to a legal career is often financially demanding at multiple stages. Despite

paying home fees, university tuition and living costs can be almost exorbitant to students of

lower socio-economic backgrounds. Furthermore, while most students who undertake the

Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) are sponsored by law firms before their training

contracts, self-funding the SQE is still common. This adds an additional financial strain for many students, especially those who have to balance their studies with paid work and other part-time jobs, further affecting grades and opportunities.

The fact is: cost is not just a barrier to entry, but also greatly impacts academic performance and competitiveness in an already ultra-competitive field.

Work Experience

Work experience, such as vacation schemes and other internships is essential for many law

students, who clamour every year to secure a place in the vacation scheme of a prestigious

law firm, in the hope they can convert it into a training contract. However, this is not equally

accessible for everyone.

It is crucial to note that many opportunities are highly competitive, some of which can be

unpaid or require high travel or even living costs. Another understated element of such work

experience is informal networks, where some students often gain opportunities through

family or other connections, while students of lower socio-economic backgrounds have to

rely almost entirely on formal application processes, which can be bureaucratic and onerous.

In other words, the system rewards those who already have access to networks, and the

requisite knowledge on how to navigate the incredibly complex system of applications. This

creates a substantial gap, even before recruitment begins.

Recruitment Culture and “Fit” for the Position

This systemic inequality often extends beyond academics, as law firms also tend to assess

candidates based on their communication style, confidence or the ubiquitous “professional

polish”. Simply put, firms are looking for a certain type of candidate, one who fits their

conception of what a lawyer or solicitor should be like. This goes beyond legal knowledge or commercial awareness, as the qualities firms are looking for are often developed and honed through schooling, a certain type of social environment or even prior exposure to professional settings.While there have been significant efforts by organisations such as Rare Recruitment to make the hiring process fairer, the current reality is that even fair-seeming criteria can unintentionally favour more privileged candidates.

Why this matters - A conclusion

This post is meant to be a blunt, realistic assessment of the often unintentional barriers

students of lower socio-economic backgrounds face in entering the legal profession. The

broader impact of such barriers is that talented students who may not hail from comfortable

backgrounds may be discouraged or even excluded, risking a lack of diversity of perspective in the profession. Hence, it can be said that socio-economic barriers are very real, cumulative and often overlooked.

It is undeniable that recent progress has been made at widening success, and we often hear more and more success stories of candidates securing training contracts or sometimes rising rapidly in their chosen professions. However, more must be done, as improving access to the profession requires not merely opening doors, but ensuring all students have a fair chance and equal opportunity to reach them.