Almost everyone at the Bar of 2022 will be acutely aware of the need to improve diversity in our profession, none more so than those of us who help to manage our chambers or to recruit its pupils.  As someone who sat on a pupillage committee for several years, I have first-hand experience of the intensive efforts that go into making such processes as scrupulously fair, and as likely to reveal a true aptitude for a career as a barrister irrespective of personal history, as possible.
Yet a fair recruitment process strives to elicit and assess the objective qualities required – the intellect, the tenacity, the entrepreneurial attitude – while excluding the subjective.  Typically, this is done by assessing an applicant’s qualifications, their work experience and performance in interview and ta...