The Gazette is often filled with materials pertaining to how unfair the profession is toward minorities, women and so forth. However, never once do you mention the plight of people like me, someone who was brought up in foster care and has entered adult life with credentials amounting to a (below) working-class white male.

As a result of being in foster care and having left at the tender age of 16, I have been exposed to the most arduous, uphill struggle simply to put food in my cupboards and pay for the electricity powering my home. Having emancipated myself from the inevitable mindset one forms when exposed to such turmoil early in life, I have sought an education and recently achieved an upper-second LLB.

However, little did I know that the legal profession is effectively opposed to welcoming those without the financial means to jump through the hoops necessary to qualify as a practitioner.

For people who have no family to rely upon to feed, clothe and basically maintain us, nor access to financial assistance elsewhere while we pursue our career, the door to the legal world is closed.

While it is commendable that there is an emphasis on ensuring diversity within the legal realm, it should not be to the detriment of working-class white men who have absolutely no one fighting our corner.

Craig Ward, LLM student, University of Wolverhampton, Walsall

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