Lawyer Monthly - September 2024

Breaking Barriers and Achieving Equality Women in Law: with Kings Chambers’ Constanze Bell 20 LAWYER MONTHLY SEPTEMBER 2024 objectives were often unclear, and it was difficult to assess the success of a project. Legal work is focused, you work to secure a result for a client, the directness of that is very satisfying. Breaking Barriers What barriers have you encountered as a woman in the legal field and how did you overcome these barriers; what strategies worked best for you? I remember being told as a pupil that I would need to work twice as hard as a male barrister. In my experience barriers for women in the legal profession are not overt. The legal profession is made up of networks and often the challenge for women is access and opportunity. Sometimes opportunities are not extended fairly, and sometimes old networks are not generous in including newcomers or unfamiliar faces. The situation is, however, improving at pace. There are now many more groups and networks ran by and for women to address this imbalance (in my area I can Kings Chambers’ Constanze Bell has a varied public law, planning and environmental law practice. She is noted for her planning law expertise (Band 2, Chambers & Partners 2024) and as a ‘leading junior’ in regulatory and licensing law (Legal 500 2024). Constanze is the number one highest rated Planning Junior under 35 (2024 Planning Resource Planning Law survey), and is a committee member of the Women in Planning network’s Yorkshire branch. She is also a member of the Kings Chambers author team who write for and produce the quarterly bulletin for the Encyclopaedia of Local Government Law. Career Path and Motivation What inspired you to pursue a career in law and can you share your journey into the legal profession and the challenges you faced along the way? I was inspired to pursue a career in law because I loved University debating. Being a barrister is about as close as you can get to being a professional debater. I did not study law at university, so I took the law conversion course and the bar course. At the time I was worried about financing my career as these courses are expensive. Fortunately, I secured a scholarship from Middle Temple. Without the support of my Inn, I simply would not have been able to train and qualify. I remember being anxious about how difficult it was to succeed at the bar. It is not easy to secure pupillage. I attended every information evening I could and worked hard to build a CV which would secure me interviews. The careers service for my bar course was excellent and I really benefitted from the CV advice and interview preparation offered. I worked briefly in the charity sector, but I found it frustrating. The aims and

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