Before I can describe the day that I became a lawyer, I, perhaps unusually, must present my case as to why I can be considered a lawyer at all. I have no official qualification to my name which would allow me to practice. On the other hand, I hold an undergraduate and master’s degree in the subject. This means that although I cannot enforce legal principles and documents in a vocational sense, if I were unable to utilise them, my career would be rendered futile. In short, my job is intertwined with, and very much depends on my sustained, healthy relationship with the law.
I submit the argument that the term ‘lawyer’ as a career indicator encompasses more than barristers and solicitors. The depth of the impact that the law has on us suggests that its interpretation and implementation cannot be limited to the confines of courtrooms and solicitors offices. I believe that those who make the decision to centre the law in their professional lives – human rights advocates, for example, or professors, politicians and legal journalists – may also fall under the category, albeit in a more abstract sense. Therefore, I would consider myself to be a lawyer, just not a formally accredited one.
As evidence, I offer my account of the day that I became a lawyer under this perhaps self-indulgent definition. It was September 2019. I had graduated just that summer, with no intention to join most of my cohort in entering a corporate training contract. Though I had been awarded a certificate proving that I had read the law, I was uncertain how it would even feature within this new chapter of my life. The biggest lesson that I had learnt in university was that I wanted to use my career to protect the vulnerable by advocating for the equitable enforcement of human rights. To begin my pursuit of this aspiration, I signed up to be a caseworker at a local charity in my city, which offered legal support and a sense of community to refugees and asylum seekers.
The offices were in a small, crumbling vicarage in the outskirts of the city centre. Upon entering, I was immediately confronted with the smell of cooking onions. As it turned out, this would also be my first attempt at cooking daal, as the community kitchen was short staffed, and it was all hands-on deck to keep the rumbling tummies of children filled. Once the lentils were left to simmer, I was taken upstairs to the smell of old books and instant coffee and assigned a computer and login.
My first case was a young woman who had entered the UK with a student visa to study engineering. She was, like me, a recent graduate. She was seeking asylum as her visa would no longer permit her to stay in the UK, yet to return home would mean that she would be put at great personal risk. She told me that if she went back, she would be forced into a marriage that would advance the political standing of her father and brothers. The man in question had abused his previous wives, who had both gone missing. She was adamant that she could not leave the UK, but did not know what she had to do to ensure that she could legally stay.
I spent the remainder of that day curating evidence to establish the danger that this woman would face if she were to be denied asylum in the UK. Once these facts had been established, the relevant laws identified, and the necessary explanations written, I sent the application to the UK Home Office. Following a final exchange of congratulations on each other’s recent achievements, my first client packed up her belongings and left the office. I never found out the outcome of her case.
I acknowledge that this experience constitutes an unorthodox introduction into the legal profession. It is certainly a more humble beginning than those of my former coursemates, who may describe the day that they first stepped into polished corporate offices, or donned a red robe and horsehair wig as the day that they first practiced the law. Yet I was required to exercise the same skills and knowledge to help someone who otherwise would not have been able to access vital legal assistance. Therefore, though some may object, that day signified to me that I had also become a lawyer.
