I reckon there is little to change in a legal society that adopts the career lifestyle for few. NY is a market that attracts more foreign lawyers than ever and it is not because of the NY Bar only price (it is pricey), but because if you dare to be different but is talented – you have plenty of legal opportunities.

I shall suggest to you, in case you are considering options to this loophole to look out for American firms in the City, and let alone the barristers and their wigs.

Yes, career development loans are drying up, but they are for everyone, not just those in your position. Many of reasonable means rely on these as well. Also, to draw a comparison with apparent low levels of bank lending to SMEs in the current climate, why would banks lend to individuals whose “order books” (i.e. chances of securing a position which will facilitate repayment: see Zoe Saunder’s figures on applicants per position) are high risk?

If you were confronted with two applicants, one of whom had acquired other desirable demonstrable skills through extra curricular activities, would you prefer the other who hadn’t on the off chance they might? If so, you perhaps do not desire the meritocracy you profess to.

Finally: “it was his wife who carried responsibility for the home and everyone in it”. Given that your issues up until this point were primarily financial: who was paying his bills, childcare costs etc. then? This was a poor, poor argument!

I really want to hear the solutions to your issues, but please let them be such that they stand up to reasonable scrutiny.

The minute my 12 months were up, I took my qualification certificate and ran! People at my chambers told me I would have been in good stead to get tenancy, but by that stage my hand was forced. I simply could not see how I was going to afford to stay, and really had never had any interest in any other area but crime, so I left the bar entirely, took a job in a completely different role that was far better paid for far few hours work. And although I feel sad that I left, and often wonder if I could have done something different in order to have made it work, I can’t say that I have ever felt more happy or more pleased to have got out whilst I could….

And if you think it is just crime that is unviable, think again. My partner is struggling to make a living at a top civil set. Yes he might bill good money, but how much of that does he see? Let me tell you, far less than I do now that I have left….

It also seems the implication here is that you, your partner and kids would all be living on student loan etc. Again there may be some personal circumstances here but obviously the loans and financial support available are not designed to support a family of five and it wouldn’t make sense if they were.

Getting a job in law is not always straightforward, you can’t always just hit the books and the online applications and hope for the best and that is particularly true where you have taken a non-traditional path. Networking, careers fairs, collaring any lawyers for their views and advice, contacting HR directly in the case of the law firms, etc are all things you can do. Also, don’t mean to be harsh but are you confident you will end up with a stellar degree that can compete with the best and put you in a good position? Many people do not get training contracts or pupillage – more people want these jobs than will get them and the numbers particularly for the bar are bleak – I don’t mean to be patronising but the maths is extremely stark and really good people who have ticked all the boxes are getting nowhere. The doors are not closed but obviously they are harder to get through when people have priorities other than their legal career… That’s just the reality of it. I trained at a major city law firm alongside a single mother who managed to find a way through and did really well (better than me as a woman with no kids!) I wish you lots of luck!!

Don’t try to paint your predicament as an inevitability of your gender! Genuinely sorry to hear you’re finding it tough but life isn’t a level playing field and you took an eccentric approach to career progression – you need to take responsibility for that. What exactly do you expect application forms to say? “Please give details of how you are qualified for this job or click here to confirm that you are a plucky, hard-working mum who deserves a chance”?

Employers and pupilmasters might not say so openly but they are looking for evidence that an applicant (man or woman) will prioritise work over personal life. 3 young children is kind of a red flag that this may not happen and you need to find ways to work around that.

Personally, I’d like to see a more human attitude in the law (we’re not performing life-saving surgery anytime soon and the long hours culture seems stupid and macho to me) but until that happens you need to know what you’re getting yourself into, particularly since you won’t have the protection of employment laws on your side when you qualify. If your pupilmaster asked you to finish work urgently for the next day would you be able to stay to do it or would you have to go home to catch the babysitter? If the latter, are you sure the practicalities of being a barrister can match up to your 7 year old self’s dreams?

[Also, while we're talking about militant feminism, why the heck can't your bloke carry the childcare can for a few years?]

I wonder whether you are able to focus your super-high IQ a little and consider for a second that not everybody has had the same chances in life that you have been fortunate enough to experience?

Whilst you were in libraries researching at the ages of 13 and 14, ‘others’ were facing daily physical abuse, locked in their sparsely furnished bedrooms and nursing battered and bruised bodies. Along with nursing their wounds, they were dreaming of a legal career but had precisely no power to do anything about it.

It is not a matter of intelligence – it is clear from your vitriolic posts that intelligence has little to do with it. It is simply the case that we each have different lives and for any number of reasons either choose or are required to follow different paths.

Contrary to your assertions, there is not necessarily any stupidity connected to taking an alternative route and for some people it is undoubtedly more wise for them to come late to the profession. I will agree however that it is for the individual to understand what they are taking on sufficiently to commit to it (or not) based on the realities of the environment they seek to be a part of.

To a degree, yes, of course we all make our own choices but there is no excuse for a self-proclaimed intelligent woman to so viciously attack another without even pausing to give consideration to whether there may be underlying causes and effects. I think your behaviour here does you an injustice and does little to prove your point.