Looking to punch above their weight

I am a trainee criminal defence solicitor, and due to being dyslexic, an activist for disability and issues surrounding neurodiversity. It is 11 months since I wrote an article for this magazine about this issue and being a criminal defence trainee (Journal, October 2022, 46). Following from that, and an interview with BBC Scotland, I and another trainee, Fraser Mackay, created a group called Disabling Barriers Scotland.

This is the first group for disabled lawyers in Scotland, and one the two of us are extremely proud to be a part of. In six months our membership has grown from 20 to 80 interested parties, and we have monthly Zoom meetings with guests including a current sheriff, and representatives from Narcolepsy UK, LawCare, WS Society and Trauma Law. One of our early impacts was after months of lobbying about the lack of technology in Glasgow Sheriff Court: Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service would later release a press statement promising sweeping changes to Scottish courts. We aim to support students and lawyers with learning or physical differences, to make working in and towards a career in law easier for those who wish to do so.

My difficulties were compounded by the extremities of studying law at Glasgow University while juggling a learning difficulty. It would be fair to say I didn’t thrive there: a feeling of constant and hectoring anxiety was supported by a plethora of resit diets due to my struggles with written work. I never entirely understood the lectures in real time, so would study into the early hours to try and compensate. Without any substantive internal support from a university that seemed more preoccupied with growing infrastructure than servicing struggling students, my mental health took a severe hit and I sought help. That was when I realised I needed an outlet to deal with my not so insubstantial issues… so I took up boxing.

Relief in the ring

Being from Bearsden, my experience of boxing prior to walking into the gym was nil. I later learned my late grandfather would discreetly listen to great fights of the past on the radio. After a recommendation I started going regularly to Kynoch boxing gym based in Govan, managed by Sam Kynoch, himself a Glasgow University law graduate and corporate lawyer before he pivoted to become Scotland’s premier boxing promoter. Personally, it felt like going from Bel Air to Beirut.

Cardio exercises would entail our coach Mo, a former Iranian fighter, screaming that anyone who stopped punching the bag for the next half hour would never be allowed back in the gym. He was a proponent of equality of outcome: a person would be berated whether a fellow coach or an amateur with zero fights. Micro aggressions would be dispensed with: he headed straight for the macro ones. The gym’s equivalent of HR was hit and roll with punches.

I recall one spar with a boy slightly more experienced than myself. Being of an analytical persuasion, I asked Mo what the strategy would be. Startled at my suggestion, Mo replied: “There is no game plan... just punch, just punch.” The world of group tasks, peer interaction and essay review meetings felt a million miles from this moment. It was a powder keg environment where the only way to relieve pressure was to train harder. The exercise was so intense that you would lose your thoughts, yourself, and by extension the problems and anxieties in your life. I gradually improved: in one incident my sparring partner reprimanded me for ruining his niece’s communion, as his black eye was in the family photos. Glad to hear the one shot I landed had some impact.

Becoming familiar and at ease with discomfort was mandatory. One boy was so afraid of being hit he jumped out of the ring entirely. We would later reacquaint outside Glasgow Sheriff Court with me representing my client and him in court for assaulting someone. I was never a contender, but I felt I acquitted myself well in the contests I did partake in. I had thought I would thrive at university, enjoying the intellectual spars and vibrant nightlife, while looking down on boxing as an arena for the ignorant and brutish. The opposite turned out to be the case: pushing myself continuously beyond my preconceived limits in boxing, I found meaning in myself, and therefore life.

Sponsorship, anyone?

Which brings me back to Disabling Barriers Scotland. We are rapidly progressing as a non-profit organisation and hope to soon gain charitable status. My engagement with boxing has given me the drive to explore and lobby for a more equitable and inclusive legal system. Recently, however, Disabling Barriers’ growth has slowed through a lack of funds… and with this backdrop I’ll be stepping back in the ring in November with the hope of garnering sponsorship/donations. Being able to train and perform a sport I love for a cause close to me is an enormous honour.

Anyone interested in sponsoring, donating or funding to Disabling Barriers Scotland please email disablingbarriersscotland@gmail.com