This is the last chance to enter our £7,500-prize student advocacy competition sponsored by Herbert Smith. What can be done to break the class ceiling keeping out so many people from a legal career? Or, bluntly, is it irremovable and there for a good reason?

The reality is that to have a white, working class background and to be a lawyer is more than a rarity, it is virtually unheard of. So while the all-white, male, middle-class legal profession of the 1950s has now been replaced by a multi-ethnic generation in which there are as many female as male entrants, it is still impossible to say that the legal profession welcomes all- commers. There remains a gaping hole where the upwardly mobile offspring of the C2, D and E social classes ought to be.

Why is this? What should be done about it? What might the legal profession do to change things? Or is it, really, someone else’s problem? After all, there may be limits to what lawyers can do for badly educated, unqualified, ill-motivated kids from council estates.

To enter the competition is easy. Send in a simple skeleton argument of no more than 400 words by noon on this coming Monday to explain your main points. Back this up by a 90-second summary of your argument uploaded on to YouTube. If you are shortlisted you will be invited in to Herbert Smith for a training session in advance of the final in London on September 21. It should be a very classy event — and we look forward to hearing from you.

For full details click here or phone the Competition Hotline 020 7466 3893. Send entries to advocacy.competition@herbertsmith.com

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