What do a mushroom-picker, a mobile phone salesman and someone whose first experience of the law was “sitting in my mum’s car outside Oldham County Court while she went inside and finalised her divorce” have in common?
They are all part of the Law Society’s project, Solicitors for Social Mobility: the Ambassadors, which will be launched officially next week.
It will introduce ten solicitors — one a district judge — all of whom were the first person in their families to go to university. The initiative was set up by Julie Ashdown, head of the Law Society’s corporate responsibility equality and diversity team, and social mobility adviser Leila Lesan.
Lesan says: “While there are inspiration projects for women, such as the Athena Project, there are no role-model projects for solicitors from disadvantaged backgrounds. We built on this idea to find solicitor ambassadors, from a broad range of qualification levels and practice areas, who had faced various socio-economic challenges in their legal education and careers. The plan is for the ambassadors to be involved in events throughout the year in England and Wales, such as careers fairs, workshops and panel events.”
Tan Ikram, the district judge, does not have the stereotypical background of a judge: his mother worked in the Jammie Dodgers factory and his father was a postman.
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He worked as a mobile-phone salesman to finance his studies. Now 49, he was appointed a judge in 2009 and sits in Westminster magistrates’ court and the Sovereign air bases in Cyprus.
“I went to university to study engineering,” he says. “However, while studying at Wolverhampton Polytechnic, my eyes were opened to the profound role lawyers play in society and I suppose that’s one of the reasons that drew me to criminal law. It seemed to be something that was close to the world I lived in. I could always empathise with ‘ordinary people’ and argue their corner. I was in the debating society at school and even then I enjoyed the argument and had views on far too many issues.”
Another ambassador, Koser Shaheen, grew up in Birmingham and did not attend school after the age of 11. With no GCSEs or A levels, she had to work as a mushroom-picker, cleaner and clothes-packer.
She won a place at the University of Central England (now Birmingham City University) when she was a 32-year-old single mother. She gained a first-class degree and completed her training contract at “magic circle” firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
Five years after qualifying, at the age of 43, she is a knowledge management attorney at international firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.
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Shaheen says: “Before I went to London, I typed ‘girl in head scarf law firm London’ into Google. I wanted to find out whether female lawyers at City firms wore headscarves. I didn’t want to lose my identity — I wanted to be proud of who I was and where I was from while working as a corporate lawyer. It was liberating walking into an international law firm feeling confident that I could be who I wanted to be, in every way.”
Further information on all ten ambassadors, including how to contact them, will be available from October 22, when the project is launched at the Society’s annual Excellence Awards at the Park Lane Hilton Hotel, London.
lawsociety.org.uk/social-mobility-ambassadors
If you know someone who would be a good ambassador, or would like to be an ambassador, contact: ask.an.ambassador@lawsociety.org.uk