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Leading sets sign up to bar social mobility scheme

Anonymous | 12-Mar-2012 5:35 pm: "...and so this social mobility scheme will end up excluding a lot of people." You make a very good point, but I think a more positive way of looking at this initiative is that it is the first (small) step on the path to including a lot more people than previously, rather than seeing it as exclusionary in and of itself. The Inns of Court are always going to struggle not to be London-centric, not only because they are based in London but also because (as I understand it) the majority of barristers in private practice do so from London. I believe that the majority of the top-ranked sets are based in London (this is not a dig at non-London sets and I may have to stand corrected). Of course, the terms of this initiative do not absolve the Inns (or chambers) from the responsibility of eventually aiming to offer the same opportunities to both London and non-London based students but if the choice is between (say) offering 42+ mini-pupillages to people who can (or are lucky or resourceful enough to) find their own accommodation in London versus (say) offering 5 (or even 10) mini-pupillages + funded accommodation in London then I think the right choice has been made, at least in the first instance. I hope that the regional Bar gets in on this scheme, or something similar, although of course I appreciate that this would still not solve the problem of offering opportunities to those without London accommodation but who would like to practise here.

12-Mar-2012

7:18 pm