Unequal Opportunity: The Hidden Barriers in Law
Unpacking socioeconomic inequality, privilege and the myth of meritocracy in legal education.
Do you remember how you felt when you got into law at Monash?
Every year, thousands of low socioeconomic status (‘SES’) high school students cannot pursue law because they don’t meet the high ATAR requirements, which can depend heavily on one’s cohort and school. Low SES students who do get the opportunity to enter law still may face challenges like working full time while studying full time, commuting from rural and regional areas and class-based discrimination.
What Does SES Mean?
SES is different from social class. Social class is one’s sociocultural background remaining stable over generations. Whereas, SES refers to one’s current socioeconomic circumstance, which can change at any time.
SES can be determined by assessing an individual’s income, education, employment and occupational status. Collectively, these affect the resources and opportunities available to a person and their quality of life, directly affecting their health and other social outcomes.
Due to the mutable nature of SES, low SES law students can later become high SES lawyers by earning higher incomes. Occupational prestige is another component of SES, so being admitted as a lawyer can technically improve SES, even if one’s income remains relatively low.
And whilst it is possible to increase SES status across one’s lifetime, low SES still presents itself as a major barrier for law students who struggle with the costs of the degree and life after graduation.
Common Misconceptions
"If you work hard enough, you’ll get HDs and a top clerkship. SES doesn’t matter."
Not all students who work equally hard are equally rewarded.
A student from a low SES background is more likely to be working paid hours alongside their degree just to keep a roof over their heads. This can become incredibly difficult to manage for these students, especially given Monash recommends working a maximum of 10 hours a week and studying for a minimum of 48 hours a week. This is compounded by evidence showing that once paid work surpasses 20 hours a week, grades start to suffer. For students of a higher SES, this means they have comparatively more time to study, network, do unpaid internships and participate in moots.
From the outside, this disparity in academic performance and extracurricular involvement can appear as though there is a disparity in hard work instead of personal circumstances. This often does not account for the fact that lower SES students simply do not have the capacity to excel in similar ways.
“SES doesn’t matter at university.”
At university, low SES law students may face judgement from middle and high SES law students for perceived differences in status, both on a conscious and unconscious level.
Low SES law students are likely to feel alienated due to the internal demographics at most universities. At most universities, low SES students are underrepresented, and the culture shock can affect one’s sense of identity and social life immensely. For example, only around 7 per cent of Monash undergraduate law students are from the lowest socioeconomic 20 per cent bracket. 57 per cent are from the top 20 per cent socioeconomic bracket.
"Once you graduate, no one cares about SES."
Practical Legal Training is seen by many students as expensive, with only 13% of recent graduates believing the course was reasonably priced and NSW CJ Bell calling for reform, stating that it is “far from ideal that young lawyers start their careers with six figure higher education debts.”
Additionally, low SES students from rural and regional areas are often unable to afford to complete unpaid PLT which can extremely limit choices. Hiring processes can be overtly discriminatory - relying on elite social networks or family legacy, are covertly discriminatory or demanding “polish”. These are often simply traits of middle-class status and socialisation which are marketed as merit.
A Message to Our Fellow Law Students
Law is meant to be a profession built on fairness, and merit has nothing to do with money or upbringing. For those of you who have to choose between a work shift and a tutorial, or can’t afford to take on unpaid opportunities: our message is that you are not alone, and you are not imagining your struggles.
Legal ID encourages law students to approach each other with empathy and think beyond the bubbles we grew up in. Speak to people who think and behave differently to you with genuine interest and ask yourself – what does merit mean to me?
Written by Joann Manoj Jacob
Edited by Joan Lim