Bar Council chairman Geoffrey Vos QC will unveil a series of measures promoting access to the Bar in a speech this afternoon (26 February).

In anticipation of a report on the subject, Vos will announce a number of initiatives to help widen access to the Bar in his speech to the think tank Social Mobility Foundation (SMF) at London's Canary Wharf. Measures include a placement programme for gifted students from state schools, set up in conjunction with the SMF, as well as a new package of bank loans for aspiring barristers from poorer backgrounds to finance their Bar Vocational Course.

Vos will argue the measures will help combat a number of challenges facing students trying to enter the profession. These are said to include a lack of familiarity with the profession, an intimidating environment in chambers, high costs, lack of pupillages, challenges of obtaining a tenancy and a lack of early earning power at the Bar.

Vos will warn: "The elitism which fosters the high-quality services that the Bar stands for has also encouraged another form of elitism…in the sense of exclusivity, exclusion, and in the creation of a profession which is barely accessible to equally talented people from less privileged backgrounds."

The speech comes ahead of an interim report by Lord Neuberger into promoting access and diversity in the Bar, which is due before Easter. Neuberger's working group was set up by the Bar Council last year (October) after it was widely reported that chances for students securing a pupillage are at an all-time low.

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