When Tom joined a City law firm, he did not expect anyone to care what his father did for a living, or where he went to school.
“My dad’s a builder,” says the 30-year-old lawyer, who recently moved to the public sector. “When I was about to qualify as a solicitor, I had to give my birth certificate to a partner to confirm my identity . . . On seeing it, [he] leaned back in his chair, looked over the top of the paper and said, ‘Builder? Haven’t you come far . . . ?’ I couldn’t shake the feeling that the comment was at my expense.”
Tom (not his real name) is one of more than a dozen lawyers and barristers who spoke to the Financial Times about incidents that include being mocked for wearing the wrong shoes, having a “working class” accent, or attending a state school. They say that although the profession is slowly becoming more diverse, a culture of casual elitism persists in some top firms, cementing a white, middle-class bias that is holding back social mobility and hampering inclusion.