A legal aid solicitor who has supported dozens of black, Asian and minority ethnic women to pursue a legal career has had to return to Ghana because her salary was not high enough to stay in the UK as a 'skilled worker', the Gazette can reveal.
Hilda Kwoffie arrived in the UK in 2016 on a student visa. She studied law at university and completed an LPC MSc in law, business and management. She then obtained a graduate visa, which allowed her to work in the UK for two years. She worked as a paralegal specialising in community care and mental health law before securing a training contract specialising in mental health law.
‘When I was coming to the UK, I didn’t know there was something called “legal aid”. But I always knew since I was young that I wanted to be a lawyer [and] help the most vulnerable in society,' Kwoffie said.
Six weeks remained on Kwoffie's training contract when her graduate visa expired. To stay in the UK, she needed a skilled worker visa – but her salary did not meet the £41,700-a-year threshold.
Kwoffie saw an immigration solicitor, who advised her to apply for a visa on compassionate grounds. She spent £5,000 on legal fees, the visa application fee and immigration health surcharge.
As she lodged her application before the graduate visa expired, she could continue working while her application was being considered. She finished her training contract, joined another firm and become an accredited member of the Law Society’s mental health tribunal panel. She also set up The BAME Woman in Law to support black, Asian and minority ethnic women break into the legal industry.
Kwoffie thought she had a strong case to be granted a visa. However, in August - 18 months after submitting her application - she was told her application was unsuccessful. She had no right of appeal. ‘The firm let me go and I had to leave the UK on 17 August. I had to quickly box my life up and come back to Ghana.'
Kowffie cannot work as a lawyer in Ghana unless she completes law school. On potential routes back to the UK, she said there is a global talent visa, 'but this appears to be directed towards people from the arts, not lawyers’.
Kwoffie’s story is likely to renew calls for legal aid lawyers to be better paid. While pay is about to rise for housing and immigration work, mental health is one of nine other categories of law where fee uplifts have yet to be announced. Data published by the Law Society this year shows the number of legal aid offices commencing work on mental health cases has nearly halved since 2011.
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