It was not that long ago, relatively speaking, when I was beginning to take those first few steps towards a career at the Bar.
Back in the early 1980s it was still quite a significant step for someone from a comprehensive school and a working-class background to have an ambition to become a barrister.
My teachers told me that people from my background did not become barristers and only a handful who graduated from my subsequent degree course went to the Bar. The only advice I had from my school teachers on the criminal justice system was when one of them, rather inappropriately, said that I should stop being disruptive in class otherwise when I grew up I would end up in prison.
I had no lawyers in the family; in fact I was only the second in my extended family to go to university.
Finance was also a problem, so I took a year off, not to travel the world, but to do jobs such as being a delivery driver’s mate, clerk at the Institute of Electrical Engineers and shop assistant at a furniture store; all to earn money to survive the early years at the Bar.
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Accomodation was also an issue. I could not afford to rent and so my initial lodging was in a Westminster City Council hostel, where I met a range of interesting people, to say the least.
This was a time when one barrister replied to my observation that we should have business cards, like solicitors: “Solicitors are business people, we are gentlemen.” I laughed, thinking he had made a joke. He was not joking.
It did not change: in the early days I learnt to put up with jokes about my accent and the odd individual who bullied and attempted to make my life difficult. Call it character forming, but it did hone one’s personality and a will to survive.
That was then. The modern Bar is unrecognisable from the one that I was called to in 1983.
The sea change in attitude and the intolerance for those who would abuse their positions makes this profession one of the leaders in achieving social mobility. These are not simply words, they are backed by action.
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The Inns lead the way. My own, Middle Temple, will interview every applicant for a scholarship and has a positive policy for encouraging state school students to take an interest in the Bar.
The Citizenship Foundation also works closely with the Bar and it is inspiring to take part in the annual State School Mock Trial competition, this year held at the Old Bailey.
Many chambers recruit comprehensively across social boundaries not only in terms of education but also by age. This must be one of the few professions that actually encourage mature applicants of broad experience.
All this is not to say that there is no other work that needs to be done.
The savaging of legal aid not only reduces access to justice but also makes it very difficult for new practitioners of limited means to sustain a career at the Bar.
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It is somewhat ironic that Alan Milburn should be saying that the professions will be supplying some 80 per cent of jobs in the future when successive governments have been destroying the publicly funded Bar.
These are significant challenges for the future, but ones that the Bar is taking on full tilt.