Barrister Jason Pitter QC awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Leeds Beckett University

My name is Jason Pitter, Queen's Counsel. I'm a barrister. When I was in my mid-teens and not really sure which way I wanted to go, we had a great sense of injustice in terms of interactions with the state and authority. And you had to ask yourself whether that was because of injustice in fairness, racism, discrimination, which then had an influence on my decision ultimately to study law.

When I first started to study and I went to King's College in London, I realised how different I was. When I came to practise law as a barrister, I was probably the very first black pupil who had gone through that route of university, then into pupillage, and it took some time before I was able to find myself and find my voice and become confident with being who I am.

When I started, you very much had that typical profile of person who would be a barrister, typically a man, typically middle class, typically white. The real difficulties I felt I faced were trying to tread that line of being true to myself. To find a way that somebody like me would fit in. And then you overcome that idea, which we call imposter syndrome now. Finding a way to reassure yourself that you are as good as everybody else. Because I've experienced the difficulties and the hurdles, I support people from backgrounds like myself.

I did a talk once and I was disappointed to hear that a number of the experiences were some of the very things I had gone through, I was very keen then to lend my support not just financially, but also to be visible. It's all very well people giving opportunities, but there's no point if you don't help somebody understand how best to take advantage of it.

I went to a great university, but I was still, in so many respects fumbling around in the dark, so I'm really keen on us turning on the light switch when we let them into the room, let them see how they can work their way through and succeed.

I think everybody should feel obliged to give back, helping where you could support financially going to schools, going to youth groups, helping with the coaching, helping with the organisation, even if it's down to just basic encouragement and saying to people, if you have confidence in yourself, you work hard enough, you might be able to achieve your dream.

I sit as part of the Bar Council's Equality, Diversity and now Inclusion Committee, so it hopes to tackle that stereotyped view of what a barrister should be. One of the key aspects of any justice system must be that people who are interacting with it, feel properly represented and by a profession which reflects society across the board.

To receive the honorary doctorate. I just felt really privileged and honoured. It was never anything which I would have even contemplated receiving. And straight away I had those thoughts of what would... what would the folks have thought about it. I know my parents were proud of what I had achieved. My dad, although he wasn't somebody who... it's a traditional Caribbean thing, he wouldn't say often but, when he did it, it meant so much. Something my dad always said to me, and I've used it as an ethos, he said: "Be true to yourself. That means you are hopefully able to back who you are. Don't ever view yourself as being better than anybody else. But... always remember there's nobody that's better than you either."