My journey as an aspiring solicitor started when I completed my first-ever law internship at a Magic Circle Law Firm in New York in 2016. However, I have faced a multitude of challenges. This included the fact my A-level grades were not the best (290 UCAS points under the old UCAS points system) as I came out of sixth form with only two A-Levels rather than the standard three A-Levels. Firstly, this meant that I didn’t go to a Russell Group University. Secondly, I didn’t always meet the A-Level grade requirements when trying to apply to a variety of law firms. I am also the first and only one in my immediate family to ever study at uni and pursue a career in the wider professional world in general.
Furthermore, I am a Mixed-Race Black neurodivergent person (I am autistic and have learning disabilities in the form of mild speech and language difficulties). It’s no secret that the legal profession (whilst making some progress) still needs to do a lot more to make the profession a lot more inclusive for both Black and neurodivergent lawyers to feel genuinely accepted and respected for who they are, and be consistently supported to thrive in the legal sector.
I believe I have come a long way in being resilient and building confidence to go above and beyond to work towards securing a law training contract. This has been exemplified by having run a successful crowdfunding campaign back in 2019 to raise funds to study the GDL (my crowdfund campaign touched on my journey in life overcoming challenges with growing up in a broken home environment, being autistic, and being homeless via sofa-surfing for 6 months at age 13), to building up three years worth of paralegal experience, and in turn improving my understanding of the solicitor's arm of the legal profession. Consequently, this all led me to secure a law training contract at CMS. Without my support network (friends both in and outside of the legal profession, mentors, STRIVE) it would not have been possible to secure a law training contract.
My experience with STRIVE has been transformative. Specifically, STRIVE and my STRIVE mentor have helped improve my commercial awareness. For years, I struggled to understand what it meant to be commercially aware. However, with STRIVE’s help, I was able to become more commercially aware which aided my training contract applications.
