Nick Clegg urges lawyers to open the profession to all backgrounds

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will tell lawyers their cloistered legal world should be opened up to people from a wider range of backgrounds. The Liberal Democrat leader has given over his diary today to a series of events aimed at improving social mobility.

At a dinner this evening he will say: "A fair society is an open society – and the professions urgently need to be opened up. The legal profession has made some progress, but not enough. You have to do better. You have to open your doors wider. Your profession judges and represents people in court – so it should represent them in membership too."

Mr Clegg will also be involved in the Speakers for Schools project, which aims to give every pupil at every school the chance to question high-profile and inspirational speakers.

"Every Cabinet minister in the coalition has also signed up to go and speak in a state school," Mr Clegg will say.