My legal life: Karl Brown, Clarke Willmott

I wanted a career which would involve communicating with and advising other people and also analysing documents. While at school I obtained work experience at a local law firm and this confirmed in my mind that law would be the best career for me.

I did not have an easy route to qualification. I did very well on my law degree and Legal Practice Course but it took me several years and over one hundred applications to get a training contract. I finally got one with Porter Dodson in Taunton.

Throughout my legal career I have held a number of external roles and positions which have involved work in the field of social mobility and equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I). After George Floyd’s death in 2020 I was asked by Clarke Willmott’s chief executive to produce a paper on how the firm could best progress its own ED&I. What I wrote contained a number of recommendations, the main one being that Clarke Willmott set up an ED&I committee. This would not only report directly to its management board but also be responsible for proposing measures and policies to improve the firm’s ED&I. I suggested that the committee be chaired by a partner and have the head of HR as deputy chair. I was very pleased that this was accepted and I was then asked to be the ED&I committee’s inaugural chair.

While working as a commercial property solicitor in Bristol and attending various property networking events, I noted that the composition of the local property industry was not very diverse, especially compared with Bristol’s wider population. In 2019 I decided to try to change this situation by founding and launching the Bristol Property Inclusion Charter to boost diversity and inclusion in the local property sector. The charter started with 16 companies and organisations as signatories and now has over 100.

'Both my parents came from very modest backgrounds in Jamaica but through hard work gave their children a better start in life than they had enjoyed'

I also launched the Bristol Property Inclusion Commission (which I chair) to help oversee the running of the charter. The commission has overseen the release of an online property careers film which has been circulated to schools; we have held events and panel discussions to give guidance to employers on how to boost their ED&I; and we launched a new mentoring scheme for real estate students at the University of the West of England (UWE) Bristol. In September we also launched a new property foundation class in conjunction with UWE Bristol and Bristol Works for school pupils, to give them an insight into the varied job roles and skills in the property sector.

In 2014 I became the first black president of a business group for under-40s in Bristol called the Bristol Junior Chamber (BJC). I had to organise and arrange each monthly members meeting and also represent the BJC at local events and meetings, particularly those involving other business organisations in Bristol and the city’s mayor. Other tasks included chairing the BJC’s managing committee and setting the themes for my presidency. A major theme was boosting social mobility.

I hosted an inaugural BJC president’s lecture which had Baroness Gillian Shephard (then deputy chair of the government’s Social Mobility Commission) as a keynote speaker. Not only were my profile and number of contacts boosted through being president, but just as importantly I gained excellent experience in soft skills such as public speaking and project management. Following my presidency, I was asked by the then mayor of Bristol to be one of the founder members of a new Bristol Learning City Partnership Board to help Bristol become part of a global network of learning cities.

I am very proud to be a social mobility ambassador for the Law Society. This involves trying to raise the aspirations of people interested in a legal career but who might be deterred because they are from under-represented or less privileged backgrounds. I go to local schools to give careers talks, have written articles and also been part of media interviews. Both my parents came from very modest backgrounds in Jamaica but through hard work gave their children a better start in life than they had enjoyed.