University of Bolton: Student wins major law scholarship

Sophia Leonard, 30 from Bolton, will be completing her degree this summer and will start her Bar course the following Autumn.

This comes after the former prison officer and call centre worker turned University of Bolton undergraduate became the only student from a non-redbrick institution this year to be awarded funding from the Lord Justice Holker Scholarship.

Ms Leonard said: “I still can’t believe that someone like me, with my background, my first job working in a chippy, now has this amazing opportunity, it is incredible.”

Sophia Leonard has won a prestigious scholarship (Image: University of Bolton)

The mother-of-one was raised by her grandparents from the age of 13.

After working part-time at a call centre, she joined the prison service aged 19 as a prison officer and spent seven years working in the North West’s most challenging prisons for both male and female offenders.

Ms Leonard said: “My dream was always to go to college and study law but I didn’t pass GCSE maths so I became a prison officer which was extremely challenging and although endured many physical and mental challenges during my career, it was a job I loved.

“I gained an abundance of transferable skills in areas such as complex behaviour management, sentencing guidelines, offender management and a strong knowledge and understanding of the criminal justice system.

Sophia Leonard studies at the University of Bolton (Image: University of Bolton)

“But I wanted to be a barrister from the age of about 14.

“The reason for that is that growing up, I saw people close to me, through their own life choices, experiencing the negative side of the law.”

The process was extremely challenging but Ms Leonard, mother of five-year-old Amelia, says she was determined to succeed.

She said: “I knew that I wanted to help others who are considered the most vulnerable in society. From a young age I had an aspiration to help improve access to justice and representation, regardless of background or class in society.

“I could have gone down a different path with my childhood experiences, however I opted for another path, turning negative life experiences into a positive outcome.”

Thanks to her hard work, Ms Leonard was one of just 88 people selected from hundreds who applied to the Bar scholarship.

She credits the support she received from the University of Bolton with helping her stand out from the crowd.

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She said: “Without the University of Bolton I would not have had the exposure and opportunity to work alongside the Crown Prosecution Service to sit on the hate crime panel for North West and being part of such a strategic led campaign.”

The scholarship winning student’s efforts have also been praised by her tutors.

Senior lecturer in law Beverly Caddick said: “We are extremely proud of Sophia’s achievements and the dedication she has demonstrated to achieve her dream of becoming a barrister.

“She has a unique ability to put people at ease whilst exuding confidence and finesse and has undertaken a number of mini-pupillages, shadowing and marshalling and is extremely motivated to succeed at the Bar.”