Our Founding Story
Our Co-Founder's Story
Lucy went into care aged 13 after experiencing abuse and neglect. At 16, she was kicked out of care and fell off the 'Care Cliff.' At 18, she studied Law at University. At 21 she was Called to the Bar and at 26 she secured pupillage.
Our Founding Story - Lucy's barriers to the legal profession:
Lack of long-term mentoring support
Lucy did not have a supportive mentor to guide her, so found applications in law challenging. She did not benefit from any of the currently available schemes, as none currently exist for CEP in law.
Cultural and social capital
Lucy did not know a single lawyer before university and had to build her connections from scratch which was challenging.
Lucy also had no training in the legal etiquette, language, or unwritten codes of the profession, so felt alien to it, knowing no other CEP legal professional.
Lack of support network
Lucy is estranged which meant that she did not have the same encouragement from her family as he peers, which left her feeling isolated. It also impacted her sense of self-belief in the profession.
Stigma
Lucy had felt pitied by her peers during mini-pupillages when she disclosed being CEP, which impacted her self-esteem as they were not CEP-trained.
Financial
Lucy could not rely on family or local authority support so she had to self-fund her mini-pupillages and work experience because only 1/7 paid for her time and expenses. As a result, Lucy had to work overtime at her two part-time jobs which impacted her studies.
The truth is, we all just need someone to care, even if it were just one person. That one person could change your life.
Gemma Creamer, Our CEP Chief Operations Officer
How LWC will bridge barriers:
Facilitating long-term Mentoring
LWC seeks to bridge the lack of current tailored mentoring support for CEP by being the UK's first mentoring organisation in law for CEP specifically.
Building social capital
LWC seeks to build social capital for CEP by providing documents and videos on the cultural aspects of the profession, as well as facilitating networking opportunities for CEP.
Building Community
LWC seeks to build a sense of community for CEP aspiring lawyers.
Our Community Outreach Officers will organise peer meet ups.
Erasing stigma
By showing what CEP bring to the table in the profession, LWC seeks to erase the stigma of being from care.
Our training will also cover stigma.
Facilitating paid work experience
LWC currently partners with law firms/chambers to consult on their paid work experience offers for CEP.
In the future, LWC will provide financial support to LWC mentees, or partner with organisations who can support CEP financially.
Our "Why" - The Invisible Inequality
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41% of care leavers aged 19-21 were not in education or employment compared to 12% of all other young people in the same age group (Department for Education statistics)
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Only 14% of children who experience foster care go to university in comparison to 47% of young people who don’t (2023 CIVITAS report 'breaking the care ceiling')
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At least 24% of the prison population spent time in care and 26% of the homeless population are care experienced (2022 Care Review)