Ah, hello old friend.
It’s been a while.
Let’s hop back on the horse: Why this story about legal aid is as misleading as it is brainless.
[THREAD] 🧵
#LegalAidLies
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Training to be a criminal barrister: 5 years.
Cost of bar course: c.£13,000
Role: Complex, sensitive human & legal problems. Distressing material. Punishing hours.
Responsibility: High. People may be sent to prison.
Median annual income for juniors in first 3 years?
£12,200
It’s #notallmen. But saying that is trite. It’s obviously not all men. Saying it is almost always men and that all men can, recognises the problem. You can either recognise the problem or be part of the problem. Until all men recognise the problem, we have a problem.
I see you all telling your Magistrates’ Court nightmare stories but silliness happens both sides of the bench. Huge shout out to the lawyer who ended a speech - grappling for a philosophical quote to give it some welly - and said “In the words of Avril Lavigne, It’s complicated.”
The attitude to pupils is one of the things I love about this profession. I just wish someone had spelt it out to me when I was a young hopeful. (Of course we didn’t have funded pupillage then - but the altruism was the same.) I dare say @10DowningStreet is even happier about it.
The sad reality of pursuing a career at the Bar is an expected pupillage award of this amount, below minimum wage. For many, a salary cut from whatever they’ve been doing in the meantime whether that be working as a bar maid or as a paralegal.