I laugh every time I remember my friend’s son being so excited and happy to go to school on his first day but then crying when he got woken up the next day because he thought school was just a one-day event.
11 years in the making... tomorrow my pupillage ends and I finally qualify.
I am apparently not what many people picture a barrister to be and am not from a ‘traditional’ background, but I did it. I am here taking up space. I Am a Barrister.
#IAmtheBar
#BHM
1/ The last few difficult days have dragged up a lot of things for me. As expressed, I am disappointed in the resounding silence from ‘Legal Twitter’. It didn’t feel right to not speak up more, so here we go. A (long) thread.
Inflation: up
National insurance payments: up
Student loan repayments: up
Food bank usage: up
Energy bills: up
Petrol prices: up
Universal Credit: down
£350m a week for the NHS: nowhere to be seen
Boris: raving every hour God sends
Oh so you WERE being rude and trying to be smarmy and embarrass me. Ha. Sorry to disappoint but I am as magical as to have become a chartered accountant AND also get a pupillage and be a barrister. Sorry again.
1/2 I’ve seen this picture of Stephen Lawrence my whole life. He used to look like such a “grown-up”. It’s been strange and sad observing this picture looking more and more like a child to me as decades have passed and he’s frozen in time at 18.
My little sister was at court giving evidence yesterday because less than 2 months into her first grad job, somebody called her a ‘mixed race c**t’.
But at least she doesn’t have to read 10,000 tweets telling her it wasn’t racist.
17/ If you feel uncomfortable or defensive about any of this, look inwards at why. And if you think your silence isn’t complicity. Well, you know what my response is.
We're not going to raise the rates of income tax, national insurance, or VAT.
Instead, we are freezing personal tax thresholds. Nobody’s take home pay will be less than it is now, as a result of this.
It is a tax policy that is progressive and fair.
#Budget2021
16/ If you think racism isn’t really a ‘thing’ in the UK and other places any more, it is. If you think quietly being ‘not racist’ is enough, it’s not. If you think what happened to GEORGE FLOYD is an isolated incident, it’s not.
11/ In my head, I’m thinking “this is it. This is always going to be my career and life”. My tutor, I am grateful, stands up for me and says “I heard it. Lola wasn’t aggressive at all actually. She speaks assertively, that’s just her voice”. (Thank you
@seeyouatthebar
) ❤️
Katie Hopkins was allowed to spout her anti-immigrant/anti-muslim/anti-black rhetoric for literally YEARS on here.
Mark Collett- still going strong.
Even Richard Spencer the unapologetic neo-nazi had a good run.
Expecting Wiley to be deplatformed in a day is... optimistic.
Thank you so much for all the supportive tweets and messages. I had hoped to reply individually to everyone but that’s looking increasingly improbable. I want you to know though that I am readying every, single response and it is thoroughly appreciated. X
When I say that I don’t believe in the death penalty, people often try to “catch me out” using grotesque hypotheticals about my family.
There is no catching me out. I do not believe in the death penalty.
The ACA is completely done. Finished. Complete. I am officially now a Chartered Accountant and can finally put those letters after my name 😭 In fact, I’m going to LinkedIn right now.
Our friend Jamie has been missing for almost 2 days now, last seen in central London.
Is anybody who works in media able to help get the word out to find him please?
Jane’s other tweet suggested I would be ‘twerking in court’. She is here demonstrating exactly why it’s important to show that there is no one way a barrister looks, or needs to look, and why representation matters. Thank you, Jane.
#Thisiswhatabarristerlookslike
12/ I get into a disagreement with a student from a different class and he calls me ‘ghetto’. Needless to say, I’m not at all, it was just a tired racial slur. Not that it’s relevant, but he failed the course.
All, and especially other legal aid lawyers, need to come together to support criminal lawyers in protesting the imposition of extended court opening hours.
It’s an impossible ask for people already doing unthinkable hours. Legal aid rates are a joke as it is. Enough is enough.
Going on holiday all alone! Finally celebrating and getting some MUCH NEEDED rest after: ACA qualifying, promotion, getting pupillage, fully qualifying as a barrister, getting tenancy, turning 21+9 ✈️ ☀️
13/ And now I am in a profession where as a black woman, I am even more of a minority and I feel like an outsider. Where every time I meet a client I wonder and will always wonder if they’re questioning how I got where I am, my ability, or don’t want me around or to work with me.
@dewi6mm
@GMB
Excuse me, boys should respect women regardless. Their respect should not be conditional upon or rooted in what a grown, consenting woman chooses to do with her own damn body- it's none of their business.
15/ This is a snapshot, not even close to detailing all the instances of racism, violent and otherwise that I’ve experienced throughout my entire life and all the things I have to think about just existing as a black person. And clearly... I’ve had it lightly compared to others.
For the genuinely curious and also for the nay sayers throwing shade. I did my law degree and did the Bar course straight away. I remember getting my degree results at midnight and my parents dropping me off in the van to move and start law school at 9am.
Jack from LI gave me the “never been with a black girl”. I was like, and people call you Oluwajack? Really? He said “not saying I wouldn’t I just haven’t”. He’s not about it and black girls need to stop salivating over him. Embarrassing.
14/ When they look at me skeptically, as I have seen some do, I don’t know if it’s just because I’m young (and look younger) or it’s what I fear that it is. My white contemporaries never, ever have to consider or worry about this.
9/ Continued references to me as a horse on social media. I start to wonder if maybe I do look like a horse. I believe I do. Present day: Dominic Cummings’ father in law calls his horse ‘Barack’ (Obama) because it’s half black & half white.
3/ I remember my mum seeing it when she came to pick me up one day and asked me if this always happens. I told her it does and I remember her going silent and trying not to cry in front of me. I remember these things because they were traumatic for that little girl.
People’s hatred of Meghan is so funny. She is literally a beautiful princess, happily expecting another child with her husband who adores her. She doesn’t need your validation. 👸🏽
2/ I have almost no memories of being 3 years old, just too young. Except two. One, asking my mum if I can please have a dad for Christmas. Two, following the white girls at nursery who moved every time I sat next to them and ran away from me screaming.
6/ This stopped because my stepdad took me to karate; I got very good at it and people became scared and stopped trying me. I eventually became popular. Maybe the children grew to accept me for who I was beyond my difference. Maybe they were still scared I’d high kick them.
10/ I am at law school now. My tutor asks my white and very middle class, classmate who already has pupillage how she found negotiations with me after an exercise. Her response, “I found Lola aggressive”.
My ‘day in the life’ is in the August issue of
@CounselMagazine
and has been one of my favourite pieces to write. It was nice not to be (completely) serious because I rarely am!
🛎 A N N O U N C E M E N T 🛎
I will be live on BBC News London this evening at circa 6.30pm discussing George Floyd and the impact here in in the UK as well as the London protests. If you are able to please tune in, I would appreciate the support. ❤️
5/ I hid on the playground at break and lunch times because when I was found I was punched, kicked and called “Lola the black Cola” by boys and “Medusa” by everyone because of my plaits (which are both quite inventive to be fair).
So my Pupillage is officially completed 👩🏾⚖️😭 and what a year this has been! Very grateful to many people.
Going to try and have a few days mental rest (including social media and messages etc) before starting as a tenant next week at the inimitable
@3PBChambers
💚💚💚
8/ I’m at uni and a fall out with former friends leads to a “hate” Facebook group being made about me with a horse as the picture. Someone calls it out as racism - I don’t look like a horse and there’s no similarity except for colour. The picture is changed to a white horse.
4/ I am at primary school now, I am 4 years old in reception and I go with my friend to see her cousin in playgroup. She tells me I have to stand away in the corner because, sorry, her cousin is scared of me.
7/ I am living on a council estate and scared of going to the shop alone because a group of older kids would punch, kick and spit on me while calling me the ‘N word’- girls and boys. Sometimes they wouldn’t let me go until I sang a song, “Lolo, sing a solo” they chanted.
People joke about lockdown weight and squeezing into work clothes but I leant forward to pick up my bag and leave the house this morning and my skirt literally exploded at the seams. My day continued in a similar vein.
The Depp/Heard lawyers are meant to be the best money can buy, right? I’ve seen pupils do better cross examination on a rainy Tuesday in the Mags court.
To the left, to the left. Everything you own in a box to the left.
In the closet, that’s Biden’s stuff. Yes, if it belongs to the White House, please don’t touch.
And keep talking that mess, that’s fine. But could you walk and talk at the same time?
The individual has not deleted the tweet. Instead, he has praised Twitter for not deleting it and continued to tweet in a similar vain. There is no remorse whatsoever. There is no bias training or Zoom event on equality and diversity that will fix the problem.
This very handsome man in the gym smiled at me and caught me off guard. I had just taken a massive gulp of water- which my cheeks were full of- so when I smiled back (awkwardly) water spurted out of my mouth. That is all.
2/2 Such a young man and after all these years and everything his family have been through, it seems now that the rest of his killers will never be brought to justice. Thinking of his parents, family and friends.
Guilty verdicts are a welcome step but there will only be true justice when there is systemic change. The end of this trial is not the end of the problem.
#chauvintrial
#JusticeForGeorgeFloyd
I couldn’t hope to reply to everyone, as much I would want, to but I am so, so grateful for the congratulations, well wishes and support. I am overwhelmed (in the best way). Thank you so much 🥺❤️
If we’re going to have any productive and honest talks about race, when it comes to diversity and inclusion (and I am looking at you barristers chambers), the term ‘BAME’ needs to be done away with. Too many proudly publishing stats and hiding behind the ‘AME’ with little/no B.
@conranKstar
@Ashleychanelol
@dewi6mm
@GMB
I will have a basic level of respect for all people unless they give me a reason not to because I’m polite and civilised. It doesn’t mean I’m going to invite them to dinner or stick their picture on my wall.