Prashant Popat QC, barrister, Henderson Chambers

I was born in Uganda at the time of the Idi Amin revolution. My family was expelled from Uganda by the regime there and taken in as refugees by the UK. My early years in this country were spent in refugee camps and sheltered housing provided by local authorities. I was educated at a collection of ‘academically challenged’ comprehensives in the Midlands and London until I went to Oxford to read jurisprudence (law).

Assumptions about becoming a barrister

I decided I wanted to be a lawyer during my first year at university but thought it more likely I would become a solicitor, principally because I held a number of preconceptions about the Bar. I believed that my background and lack of a private education would preclude me from obtaining a pupillage. I thought that I would be unlikely to fit in a world in which I assumed who you knew mattered more than what you knew. I also doubted that I could afford to be a barrister as I did not have a private income or other financial resources to fund and support me through Bar school and the first few years of life as a practising barrister. Ultimately, however, I felt that working as a solicitor would not provide me with an opportunity to be an advocate, which was what I wanted most. .

The Bar is a genuine meritocracy

My experience of life at the Bar has shown my preconceptions to have been misconceived. I was supported financially by my Inn (Gray’s), I obtained a pupillage at an excellent civil set and was given a tenancy based on my performance. At no stage has race or personal or educational background adversely affected my career and I have found that the Bar is a meritocracy, where hard work and talent (accompanied, of course, by good fortune) are rewarded with success.