The Diversity in the Legal Profession Event, was held on the same day that England played Croatia! More about that later. The sponsors were Bastian Lloyd Morris Solicitor Advocates, Duncan Lewis Solicitors, Woodfines Solicitors and St Phillips Chambers.
Michelle Christie, a barrister with St. Phillips Chambers, ensured that everything ran smoothly, introducing the speakers, including HHJ Perusko CBE, the Designated Family Judge (DFJ). There were over 120 delegates.
The speakers had come to the law via different routes. Various ethnic, racial, social and cultural heritages were represented. Diversity transcends race and colour. It also intersects gender, disability, age and sexual orientation.
Konstantina Nouka, a barrister at Nexus Chambers, specialising in criminal defence and family law, was very inspirational. Konstantina has been diagnosed with a rare and progressive muscle-wasting condition called Ulrich Congenital Muscular Dystrophy and uses a wheelchair. She set up an organisation called Bringing [Dis]Ability to the Bar (BDABar) to support disabled individuals who wish to pursue a career at the Bar.
Through her work, Konstantina aims to dismantle the stereotypes and prejudices that affect disabled people and raise awareness of disabilities and accessibility. Her focused advice was: “We are the ones making opportunities for ourselves – if we wait for others to give us a chance, the chance will never come. We need to be brave, ask to be considered for opportunities and advocate for our abilities. Undoubtedly, there are going to be hard days when we need to show resilience, but don’t see it as a personal threat; see it as an opportunity to refine your skills.”
We also heard from Charlotte Barber-Till a paralegal from Bastian Lloyd Morris, who gave a very vivid and engaging account of how she came into the law, a little bit later than is usual, having started off her working life as a beauty therapist. After experiencing the trauma of a failed marriage after 22 years, she graduated from Buckingham University with a degree in law.
She, like Krina Parmar, who is one of the directors at Duncan Lewis Solicitors, highlighted the many skills needed to pursue and advance a career in law. They both had the delegates in stitches when they recounted how a certain solicitor with the initials SLM had thrown them in at the deep end, on more than one occasion!
Krina candidly explained how one of the motivations that led her to speak at the event was to share and reflect on her own emotional journey, as she pursued her career in the law. She sought to encourage others to not see their personal background or circumstances as being things that stop them from ‘dreaming big’. Krina also sits as a magistrate.
Shazia Haider-Shah is a barrister at 3 DJB, although she started off her professional life as a solicitor before progressing to become a solicitor advocate at a multi-office firm of solicitors. In her talk she expressed the importance of ‘having allies and cheerleaders’. She described how, at the beginning of her career, in 1994, she faced discrimination at some of her places of work, because she dressed more modestly in accordance with her cultural norms. The focused advice she gave was to ‘build your network, make allies, have a carefully picked handful of phone numbers of people you know you can call with any work-related issue’.
Baldip Singh is a barrister at No 5 Chambers. He also sits as a Deputy District Judge, one of the youngest ever to be appointed. He is the Founder and Chair of Sikhs in Law, an international organisation dedicated to supporting and advancing legal professionals whilst promoting diversity, inclusion and access to the profession.
Baldip gave the delegates ‘10 Lessons for Thriving in Law’, impressively timed to fit precisely into the 20 minutes slot that he had been allocated! Here are two of them; ‘Excellence opens doors. Visibility keeps them open’; and ‘Leave the door wider open than you found it’.
Dr Onyoja Momoh is a barrister at 5 Pump Court and Lecturer in Law at the University of Aberdeen, specialising in private international law and cross-border family disputes. She has advised governments and presented to bodies including the UK House of Lords, the European Commission and HCCH, and her work spans child protection, gender-based violence, refugee protection and cross-border justice. The ‘golden thread’ that ran through her talk was the importance of diversity in the legal profession and of recognising the barriers that often remain unseen behind achievement.
HHJ Burgher was appointed as a Circuit Judge in 2018. She is the first and only black salaried judge to sit in Birmingham Civil and Family Justice Centre. Her talk was entitled ‘Where’s the Judge?’ Although nearly 5% of the population is black, only just over 1% of judges are black.
HH Hughes DL, a Director of the FDAC Charity, explained the charity’s purpose and offered some insightful observations, paying tribute to the Shakespearean maxim ‘to thine own self be true’. The event was an excellent success.
Oh, that reminds me – England v Croatia. Our very own DFJ was born in Croatia (then Yugoslavia) to a Croatian father and an English mother. That’s the beauty of diversity, isn’t it? It gives all of us the opportunity to legitimately support more than one team in the tournament! Donations to the FDAC Charity may be made online at their website.
