Is the Bar open to all? Or is it like the Ritz – only to those with means? In the past decade, the privileged precincts of the Inns of Court have become increasingly exclusive, as costs of training and student debt – plus lack of local authority grants – moves the Bar farther out of reach of the less well-off.

But the Bar, Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury says, can flourish and retain public confidence only if diverse and inclusive. And that extends not just to gender, race, sexual orientation, religion and so on but “every bit as much to social, economic and educational circumstances and background”.

“There are a lot of able people who have gone through state schools but they don’t move in circles where they meet professional people and they don’t even think of the Bar as a profession.” The image of barristers being upper-class “with the gift of the gab in a sort of grand, old-fashioned theatrical way” puts people off if they come from backgrounds where their family and friends were not like that. If they do think of it, there is the worry of the cost and the uncertainty of a chambers place because of the huge attrition rate. “All this is likely to put off well-off middle-class people, never mind the less well-off.”

This week he publishes the results of a year-long inquiry into how to widen access to the Bar. His panel of 32 has produced a 350-page report with 57 recommendations to build on work being done by the Bar Council, the Inns and bodies such as the Sutton Trust that he hopes will prove “effective, coherent, affordable and practicable”.

It may also prove controversial. Hundreds of students a year do the one-year vocational training for the Bar and then cannot obtain pupillage (a training place in chambers); or if they do, cannot obtain a tenancy (permanent seat). Lord Neuberger believes that, in one sense, too many people are aspiring to the Bar, or “too many of the wrong people, because they’re not all of the high quality they should be”.

Should numbers be capped or restricted – and if so, how does that square with widening access? The report rules out a cap. But it does look at whether the Bar Vocational Course (BVC) should take only those with a 2:1 degree. The final (compromise?) proposal is to investigate this further, to ensure it would not be detrimental. In the meantime, course providers should tell those with 2:2s the blunt truth: that, for instance, of 437 students with 2:2s, only three obtained pupillage.

In general he is highly critical of the BVC as the stepping-stone to the profession. “When you look at the pass rate, very competent is seen as encompassing barely competent and competent is seen as encompassing hopeless.” The standard, he says, is simply not high enough – “quite a few should not be on the course” and those on it are dissatisfied with it.

The report also proposes a language aptitude test because too many embark on the BVC “when they have not got good enough English”. Again, there is concern that this may favour the middle classes. But Lord Neuberger believes a fair test can be devised. He also calls for a single BVC exam across England and Wales and wants it to qualify for a masters degree.

Lord Neuberger, now a law lord but a latecomer to the Bar after trying the City (he did three pupillages before securing a seat), has a host of other proposals that are less controversial or “motherhood and apple pie”: compulsory teaching in schools about the work of a lawyer; more placements of pupils in chambers for mini-pupillages; more work by the Bar and Inns to make contacts at nontraditional universities; a pupillages clearing house; sponsorship schemes for government and other employers; and pressure on chambers to provide more pupillages – even on lower pay; and training for those in chambers who select.

It comes down to fairness, he says. It is not right if less good middle-class people come to the Bar and good people from poorer backgrounds do not. But he is realistic. “We live in an unequal society and it’s perfectly true that we can’t change the world. If we aim at perfection, we are living in cloud cuckoo land. But the fact that inequality is endemic doesn’t mean we can’t try to do something about it.”

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