Attorney General sets up ‘Youth Network’

High-profile lawyers, including Simmons & ­Simmons senior partner David Dickinson, JPMorgan managing director and associate general counsel Timothy Hailes, JPMorgan Europe, Middle East and Africa general counsel Karen Linney, the Attorney General’s pro bono envoy Michael Napier CBE QC, and Margaret Mountford, Sir Alan Sugar’s aide on The Apprentice, have signed up to the initiative.

The group will join other well-known names from the arts, media and business worlds in developing modules in conjunction with the Crown Prosecution Service that can be rolled out across schools nationally.

Attorney General Baroness Scotland told The Lawyer she believed that lawyers from non-traditional backgrounds could be role models for young people.

“I want all children who have the ability and talent to know that the legal profession is one they can aspire towards,” she said. “Some people think lawyers come in one form only. [They think,] ‘If I have one leg or come from a poor area or are gay then it’s not for me’.

“If we’re going to grow a diverse profession we’ve got to do something positive. If we want to raise aspirations, there’s nothing more ­powerful than seeing a lawyer in school… ­especially ones from non-traditional backgrounds.”