Creating a level playing field in law

I can't think of a higher political priority for any country than the task of ensuring that all its citizens get an equal chance to make the best of themselves in life. Two hundred and fifty years ago, it was the first of the self-evident truths listed in the US Bill of Rights. And yet today there is still no nation in the world that can claim to have lived up to this high ideal in full.

And there is no profession anywhere that can say that it has done every single thing it can to open itself up to anyone on an equal basis.

I'm a black barrister who grew up in the inner city among a family where there was much love, but little money. I was given my chance to show what I could do by men and women with progressive outlooks and a vision of a legal system that should be truly representative of all the people it serves. That's why I believe that's it's important to continue to do everything that we can to steer our society in a fairer direction.

On many counts this country is becoming a fairer place. In its report on Fair Access to the Professions, Alan Milburn's panel said that record numbers of young people are going to university, one in three people of working age are members of a profession and the gender pay gap has narrowed.

However, while the Milburn report said the glass ceiling had been raised - it has not been broken. In particular, it contained evidence that law remains a comparatively socially exclusive profession. Far too often it is a case of who you know and how much your family earns that determines who gets on.

Any time someone with talent is stopped from developing that talent, it's a tragedy. But it is also important for the future of the professions and the future growth of the economy as a whole. We simply cannot afford to go on with so much untapped potential.

That is why we have put social mobility at the heart of our work in government. But, as we all know, real progress can't only come from the top down. There is also a significant amount for the professions themselves to do as well. Only they can really make sure access to jobs is fair, open and transparent.

There is a lot of good practice that we can build on. Lawyers in Schools schemes and mock-trial competitions involve thousands of schoolchildren and do much to break down some of the traditional barriers to getting on in the law. Fostering ambition in children from an early age like this can have a lifelong-lasting effect.

In our formal response to the Milburn report we have revamped and relaunched the Gateways to the Professions Collaborative Forum. The new Forum will build on the strengths of the earlier one. It will comprise of representatives from an expanded, diverse range of 60 professions, including the arts, media and the creative and emerging high value industries. An executive group, with strategic oversight of the subgroups, will be chaired by me.

We also recognise that the route towards the top of almost any profession starts at university. That's why we are saying that the context of educational achievement should be taken into account in admissions procedures. It is also crucial that opportunities are made available for those who want to train and enter the professions later in life. We are already well on the way to establishing a more flexible higher education system and ways of working, but more must be done.

I look forward to the progress that we will make together towards creating a legal profession that will be seen, in this country and elsewhere, as a model of fairness and openness for others to emulate.

David Lammy MP is the Minister of State for Higher Education and Intellectual Property.