Charles Dickens would recognise the modern legal profession — regardless of its modern accoutrements,
Recent research revealing that 53 per cent of partners at leading law firms in England and Wales attended independent schools further demonstrates that it remains a dickens of a job to achieve movement in social mobility.
The truth is that the legal teams in Jarndyce v Jarndyce would be little different today than they were in 1852.
Despite all the fine words, the legal profession remains hidebound, hierarchical, remote and, in its upper echelons at least, unrepresentative of wider society.
There is no place in the modern world for a legal system that continues to favour those from fee-paying schools and a narrow selection of universities, with many bright, skilled candidates