Alumni Spotlight: Benita
"The Charity Commission reported in 2017 that 92% of trustees are white, two-thirds are male and the average age is between 55-64 years old, so I’m very pleased to be moving the needle on that. I can’t wait to see what the next generation of Future Leaders achieves."
Benita Udegbe, Crown Prosecutor and Villiers Park Trustee
When I joined the board in September 2021, I was proud to be the very first alumni trustee at Villiers Park. The Programme and people here had a big impact on me so I’m happy to be able to give something back. It has been a great opportunity for me to see things from the other side of the table and represent current Future Leaders’ voices at board level. It’s fantastic to work with trustees from a wide range of backgrounds – I have learnt a lot!
I knew before I started the Villiers Park Programme that I wanted to be a lawyer, and that university was the way to achieve that, but I knew little about the steps I’d need to take to get there.
What Villiers Park really did for me was put opportunities for personal development within my grasp - things that I simply wouldn’t have found out about without being on the Programme. The subject-specific residential course on law really opened my eyes: we talked about human rights and criminal law and were able to visit a prison. The internship at Freshfields gave me a feel for what it is really like to work for a multinational law firm. Prior to this, law was just this abstract idea for a good career, but, through Villiers Park, it became something I really wanted to do for the right reasons; it cemented it for me.
Growing up in Eastbourne and going to Hastings College, it never even occurred to me that I was from a “disadvantaged” background, and I certainly never felt that word applied to me or my peers. I must admit it jarred me to hear it being used in the context of our young people when I became a trustee.
Through this appointment, I’ve come to understand that Villiers Park works in areas with lower progression rates to higher and further education - something which is a common indicator of economic disadvantage. I’ve since learned that several areas within Eastbourne - and many more within Hastings - are in the most economically deprived 10% in all of England. While I might not consider myself disadvantaged, it’s clear there are big gaps in opportunity and outcomes across the UK.
“Under-represented” is a term that sits better with me, and that’s true in my chosen field of law: the percentage of female lawyers roughly mirrors the population average, but we make up only 1/3 of partners - the most senior position in a law firm. 22% of UK lawyers attended a fee-paying school compared with just 7% of the population – so maybe we should be talking about the problem of “overrepresentation”! A few years ago, just 2% of UK lawyers were black compared to 3% of the UK workforce - fully a third fewer. It’s now 3%, so some things are moving in the right direction!
Speaking of representation, the Charity Commission reported in 2017 that 92% of trustees are white, two-thirds are male and the average age is between 55-64 years old, so I’m very pleased to be moving the needle on that. I can’t wait to see what the next generation of Future Leaders achieves.
