Overcoming barriers in the legal field

ARTICLE

Overcoming barriers in the legal field

By Charity Mafuba

My fascination with law began when I was 32 years old. I had been working for Kingston Social Services for 10 years in various roles and departments. My last role also entailed advocating for clients to the finance panel, on the premise of convincing them to approve funding for permanent residential placements. That’s when it dawned on me that I wanted to pursue a career in law.

The first barrier, I had to contend with was a psychological one. This was to do with my age. I felt it was late in the day for me to be commencing my foray into education as a mature student. This was premised on the fact that I would be 33 years old when I commenced the degree. The 3-year duration of the LLB Law degree was an enormous deterrent, as this meant that I would be 36 on completion of my degree. Moreover, this would just be the first stage of the requisite education I would need to complete. By the time I completed all the requisite courses, I would be almost 40 years old, gearing me up for further barriers which would potentially impede my career progression.

The second barrier was a financial one. Given my aspirations of being a commercial barrister, I would then need to complete a post graduate course, the BPTC. The cost of funding this was almost £20,000. Having already financed my undergraduate degree with student finance, this time round I would not be in a position to finance the entire cost using that option. Only half, meaning I would need to explore other avenues to secure the remainder. My credit score at the time meant that I would need a guarantor, which was not feasible, given my circumstances at the time. I was also did not want that pressure on my conscience.

The third barrier would be that of securing a pupillage. It is an established fact that pupillages are scarce and the majority of them are awarded to a certain type and class of candidate with criteria that I barely met. Having considered all these factors, I decided against pursuing a career in law through this route. The alternative was the solicitor’s route. This too would require me to complete a postgraduate course, the LPC. The cost of funding was almost £17,000. Again, this came with similar cost implications to the BPTC. The slight difference being that obtaining a training contract would most likely be less arduous than attempting to obtain a pupillage. However, similar to the BPTC, having given consideration to various factors, I also decided against pursuing a career in law through this route.

The fourth barrier I encountered was, obtaining requisite legal experience. I decided that is was imperative for me to obtain practical legal experience. Thus began my quest to secure a paralegal role. I did not envisage the herculean effort it would take to achieve this. Having graduated with a high 2:1 in my undergraduate degree, I naively thought that I would be in a good position to secure a paralegal role within a short period of time. To state that I was in for a rude awakening would be an understatement. All the jobs I applied for, would have the same feedback, “You have good grades, but lack the requisite work experience”. In order to sustain myself, I resorted to going on benefits, something I had always vowed against doing. But that old adage “desperate times call for desperate measures” personally rang true, and I had no option but to sign on. Not to be deterred, I started attending various networking events on the premise of establishing contacts who would enable me to build up the work experience that had prevented me from securing a paralegal role to date.

After what seemed like an eternity, a white, male partner was my saving grace. He willingly provided me with a week’s work experience in his department at a Silver Circle firm. Once I updated my CV to reflect this, I was able to secure a legal internship and finally secured my first official paralegal role, a year after graduating from law school.

Although it was for a limited duration, the Manager of the Trade Finance Department introduced me to another white male partner from a renowned Trade Finance Law Firm in the City, who graciously made an exception and provided me with two weeks work experience. This bolstered my legal work experience and was instrumental in my being able to secure a subsequent paralegal role at a Lloyd’s Insurance Company where I garnered invaluable experience of drafting and amending contracts. Which will no doubt be useful when I am a qualified, as I am keen to work as a transactional lawyer.

I was also able to secure mentoring support through the International Trade Finance Mentoring scheme. My designated mentor assisted me in various ways and provided me with insightful information on how to navigate a legal career.

In 2019, I decided that I wanted to be a New York attorney and commenced the New York bar course through Barbri. I sat all the requisite exams which I passed first time in 2020 and 2021 respectively during the pandemic whilst working full time and am currently awaiting admission to the New York State bar as an Attorney and Counselor-at-Law. This enabled me to access the Qualified Lawyer Transfer Scheme and I simultaneously undertook the Multiple-Choice course, sat the exam beginning of July (which I passed) at the same time I was preparing for the New York Bar exams end of July and Mid-August.

I subsequently sat the QLTS OSCE exams end of November and am awaiting the results which are due out, end of February or beginning of March. They will enable me to qualify as an England and Wales Solicitor. All in all, I sat a total of 30 exams in 2021.

How did I overcome all these barriers? Resilience is key. Sometimes you have to Adapt. Be prepared to change strategy, the end goal is the same. I will be a dual qualified lawyer before the end of the year because I dared to overcome these barriers. ■

Charity Mafuba