Low expectations are preventing equal opportunities

Low expectations based on prejudices against wealth and ethnicity are institutionalised across society, widening unnecessary divisions and barring access to educational and career opportunities.

On 29 April Hackney Community Law Centre (HCLC) and The Justice Gap organised a discussion event aimed at demystifying the law for young people, improving awareness of basic legal rights and encouraging people to feel empowered and achieve successful, rewarding careers. The event brought young people, community workers, lawyers and a politician or two together at London's City Hall for a discussion which raised crucial issues surrounding the continuing lack of equal opportunities and the institutionalised, under-the-radar stigmatisation of people on grounds of their socio-economic and/or racial heritage.

Much of the discussion centred on people's accounts of discrimination in both its knuckle-headed and more subtle guises. There were many, many accounts of the racial discrimination and intimidation practised by the Metropolitan Police. As a white male, I have never been stopped and searched by the police, but one man present at the discussion who is black revealed that he had been stopped over 100 times without justification, while another speaker said that he had been stopped as many as seven times in one day. We also heard the account of a woman who professed to being stopped at least once a week while driving and spoke of her feeling of humiliation at being searched in the street without any justifiable reason for suspicion other than that she "fits the profile" (as she recounted an officer saying) of the people whom the police are directed to stop. Meanwhile, another woman, who had been taunted repeatedly by various police officers claiming to be "the biggest gang in London", took her complaints about race and youth discrimination to the Met's commissioner, Bernard Hogan Howe. She left her audience with him feeling un-listened to and dismissed. A further indictment of police practices emerged recently with the Black Police Association's declaration that the Metropolitan Police remains institutionally racist, even after the organisation's prejudicial culture was damningly exposed following the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

You may wonder what this has to do with legal careers and whether you have clicked onto a shoddy imitation of a Guardian rant by mistake, but these accounts of police discrimination are one (severe) symptom of a wider, institutionalised bias that perpetuates inequality of opportunity, low expectations and, ultimately, the fact that privately-educated white men dominate the Bar, the judiciary and law firm partnerships. Corporate lawyer and ambassador of the Law Society Diversity Access Scheme Sandie Okoro argued convincingly that a contributing factor to the difficulties many people from ethnic minority backgrounds face in trying to carve out a top career is that they are burdened with low expectations by authority figures across society: at schools in which teachers only hope that their pupils can achieve the minimum GCSE requirement; at elite universities disproportionately populated by privately-educated people who have benefited from educational standards and other privileges inaccessible to many of their talented peers; in the country's baying press that lambasts "feral youths" and "broken Britain"; and by a police force which, in London at least, tends to regard ethnic minorities with ceaseless, alienating suspicion. One aspiring lawyer at the HCLC discussion said that she had taken some inspiration from Reese Witherspoon's Legally Blonde character because she defied her own stereotype and the low expectations with which it is associated to "prove everyone wrong".

Elitism is established at school, continues during university selections and is maintained in the approach that law firms and chambers take to recruitment. People who were privately educated take a very large number of Oxbridge places not because they are brighter than state-educated kids (some of the privately-educated people I met at university would have been flipping burgers if they had been born into different circumstances), but because they are expected and constantly encouraged to flourish under excellent tutelage before enjoying a successful career in one of the professions. The path is well established. Top employers clearly just want the best talent available, so naturally cherry pick those who performed well at the most prestigious universities. This is not their fault - merit should always be the underlying principle that governs and creates success - but not enough is being done, at any level, to give the abundant talent elsewhere sufficient opportunities to compete and achieve.

There was some positivity at the event. Lord Colin Low, chairman of the Low Commission which is examining the future of legal advice, pointed out that although its makeup is elitist, the judiciary is now much more inclined to defend people's rights against political whims than it was previously. Low also argued that while legal authority can be used to oppress and intimidate, the law can also be used to fight discrimination and even work toward the kind of adjustments necessary to ensure that meritocratic competition for high-flying legal careers takes place on a more level playing field.

But unfortunately, the current government's drastic cuts to legal aid will undoubtedly exclude many poorer people from accessing justice through proper legal representation, meaning that the only options for many will be to fight their case themselves against the well-trained lawyers paid for by the other side, or remain silent. For vast numbers of people - many of whom could otherwise be lawyers and other top professionals - the game remains institutionally rigged. Thankfully, bodies like HCLC continue to help vulnerable people while also increasing awareness of this impractical and unjust situation. But don't just leave it to others should you succeed in the great achievement of becoming a practicing lawyer; by giving up some of your time for pro bono work and reaching out to others in your community, you will be able to enjoy your success while also pulling your weight to ensure that justice and opportunities are as open as possible.