The prevalent media interest in the importance of good and correct English, together with the Gazette’s reference of 8 March, 2012 to the Social Mobility Toolkit produced by Professions for Good, caused me to look again at Dr Louise Ashley’s article.

Dr Ashley wrote about the problems of placing law students with City firms, which she attributed to prejudice against working-class origins, dress and speech. While I agree that students with great potential may be lost if their speech and dress appear professionally inappropriate at interview, this is hardly the fault of the recruiters, nor is it a simple matter of 'class prejudice'.

It is obvious that future lawyers should speak and write clear, accurate and correct English. As Baroness Deech, chair of The Bar Standards Board, has recently stated, 'I want a lawyer who is not just good in English but very good in English', and she told young barristers over a year ago that the profession needed to sift out linguistic stumblers, 'just as the tone deaf are not admitted to music school, nor are the two-left-footed to ballet school'. A survey on linguistic competence among both native and non-native English speakers highlighted the 'inability to speak fluently, with close attention to grammar, vocabulary and syntax' as the main deficiency among trainee barristers, 'some of whom were so poor in English that it would stop them ever succeeding in the profession'.

What is true of potential barristers is no less true of solicitor advocates and solicitors generally. Of course students have their own lingua franca and dress code, but they must learn to gain respect by emerging from the student chrysalis and adapting speech, language and dress to the codes of their chosen profession and career. In the case of written and spoken English it is particularly essential for a lawyer to acquire precision and clarity to be sure of being accurately understood. If students of whatever social and ethnic background have not appreciated this and learnt to adapt accordingly, it is hard to see how they will display the flexibility of mind and expression to develop into top-class lawyers of the future who will attract class clients to a class firm and serve all sorts of clients with the respect and skill they deserve.

A real command of English is essential, but often lacking, in other professions too, and this lack has had disastrous and even lethal results. We have all heard of the case of a death caused by a doctor from Germany who 'could not speak English, yet the flawed system allowed him to perform out-of-hours care'. For the future it is reassuring that the outcry against EU regulations preventing stringent English language testing of European Economic Area doctors is likely to be heeded, but there will still be foreign doctors practising here whose English is so poor that patients have to resort to communication by drawings and gesticulation! It would be funny were it not so serious. Accuracy, precision and clarity in writing and speech are essential in every profession. Sloppy communication also usually implies sloppy thought.

Employment agencies recruiting for far more modest positions for school leavers have also understood that how applicants present themselves is immensely important regardless of impressive CVs. They are suggesting training in elocution or presentation skills, and promoting dress for success.

There are people, mostly from the middle classes, who say that regional/ethnic/class accents do not matter and should have no influence on recruitment in these progressive days. This, as Dr Ashley knows, is more politically correct than realistic. There is no shortage of testimonials to the obvious fact that learning to speak and write good English well and to moderate regional or ethnic accents can greatly enhance chances of success in the professions and many other careers. Joan Bakewell, for example, when interviewed on the Radio 4 programme Fry’s English Delight, cheerfully acknowledged that she was quick to neutralise her strong northern accent when she won a scholarship to Oxford, and there were many more.

Participants on that programme also recorded, quoting surveys from all parts of England and overseas, that standard accent-free English (the so-called received pronunciation) is the voice most commonly associated with success. Intelligent and able students from whatever social or ethnic background should not let themselves be excluded from the future elite, when, by acquiring the relevant skills in correct, clear, accent-free English, they can realise their potential. There are many ways for students to help themselves to acquire a command of good English speech and pronunciation, including distance-learning courses that are a convenient, confidential and inexpensive alternative to attending lessons.

Indeed, City firms could usefully benefit themselves and contribute to social mobility by selecting some of the most talented students who might otherwise have slipped through the recruitment net and sponsoring those who wish to improve their presentational skills, besides making this part of internal training programmes.

Mary Greenhalgh, consultant solicitor, Grant Saw Solicitors LLP