Our chairing model will see each of us taking responsibility for a particular objective and co-ordinating the YLAL committee to drive forward activities in these areas.

We are currently working with the APPG and the campaign group, More United, on a Take Your MP to Work campaign. YLAL members from across the country have signed up to take their local MPs to work with them to highlight the importance of properly funded and comprehensive early legal advice. These visits will be recorded and become part of our first big legal aid campaign. We are planning a public launch of the campaign in parliament in early July to coincide with the 70th anniversary of legal aid.

Many barriers to the profession were identified in our 2018 report, Social mobility in a time of austerity. These included the combination of high student debts with low salaries, the requirement to undertake unpaid work experience, and the lack of support given to junior lawyers working in highly pressured environments. We will be continuing our work to promote diversity in access to the profession and are looking forward to continuing to campaign for a more socially mobile legal sector.

In return, we seek to provide our members with the support they need to do this, including providing networking opportunities through holding regular meetings at YLAL groups across the country, enabling our members to see opportunities within legal aid in one place on the jobs pages of our website, and supporting junior lawyers through our popular mentoring scheme, among other things. We have plans to develop these activities so as to better serve the interests of our members, in so doing nurturing a vibrant and engaged network whose experience and expertise we can draw upon in advancing YLAL’s broader objectives.