Sophie Stevens - Our Voice, Our Stories

We asked Sophie to share their experiences as a neurodivergent legal professional. Their story is part of 'Our Voices, Our Stories' - our series for Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2025 featuring authentic experiences of neurodivergent legal professionals.

---

Watch the full video here:

This video is 9 minutes and 50 seconds long. If you would like to follow along with the transcript, please see below.

---

Transcript:

"Would you mind introducing yourself and sharing which neurodivergent condition(s) you identify with or have been diagnosed with, to the extent you're comfortable doing so?"

My name is Sophie Stevens. I am a crime and extradition barrister at 9BR Chambers and I've been diagnosed with dyslexia.

“How has your neurodivergent thinking provided unique advantages or perspectives in your legal work? Are there aspects of your neurodivergence that you consider professional strengths?”

In my work, I feel that my dyslexia actually brings a real unique spin to a lot of the cases that I look at and within the clients I represent. So for example, I'm quite proud to say that I am dyslexic because often I can look at the case and see it in a three-dimensional way and spot certain things that perhaps other people have missed or just don't interpret in the same ways that I do.

"What reasonable adjustments have you received in your workplace that have been particularly helpful for you?"

So when we speak about reasonable adjustments, sometimes the expectation isn't always this big thing that has to be a massive change to the workplace. For example, in my work, in chambers, I often liaise with the clerks to ensure that I get the support I need, particularly with last-minute papers coming flying in through the door, which is really common as most people know about crime.

So how we've combated that, to start with, I had a really open conversation with my fantastic clerking team and they have been extremely supportive in making sure that on the occasions where a brief comes in quite early, they get it to me as soon as possible so that I'm able to digest that material for a longer period. This has really helped me be able to structure and develop my practice to ensure that I am able to do a really good job and have the time that I need on those cases and those papers, so that's just one example of a reasonable adjustment that's been made to cater for me.

"What factors influenced your decision to disclose (or not disclose) your neurodivergence in professional settings?"

So everyone knows I'm quite a proud dyslexic. So for me, I must admit that I've never really had a difficulty with disclosure. I've always been someone who has been upfront about being dyslexic and saying it from the get-go. And what made me decide that that was the approach that I wanted to take was simply because without people knowing, there's nothing they can do to support you. So if you don't disclose, you are at risk of not getting the support that you need. And I learned that very quickly.

I learned that really early on, particularly with exams and situations like that, that if I didn't disclose my dyslexia, I wouldn't be able to get the extra time in the assessments. And then that carries through into professional settings, which means that if I don't tell my team that if things come in extremely, extremely late, I'm not going to have time to digest that material, that's going to put me in a more stressful situation when actually it might have been that it could have been avoided by a simple conversation because I've put it down.

And I think it also comes into it with things like pupillage applications or applications for training contracts. If you're going through a period of assessment in order to try and get a role in the legal profession, you're going to need to have the support in order to do that and perform to your best ability. And without disclosing, nobody's going to know and be able to offer you that support. So that was what strongly influenced my decision to disclose my dyslexia. When approaching conversations about disclosure, it's kind of twofold.

"How did you approach those conversations regarding disclosure of your neurodivergent condition?"

The first stage is whether or not you put it on, say, a form in a specific place, and I basically either ticked a box or just explained, you know, I've been offered an interview, I'm going to require X, Y and Z in order to be supported. When I then started Pupilage, I had a separate conversation with the Equality and Diversity team and said to them, you know, this is how I think I could be best supported and they actually approached me as well to see and check in to make sure that I was feeling supported. So the truth of it is really very much having open conversations and being forthright with the fact that these are the things that you require and the support you need in order to succeed and I think having that conversation is really important.

"How do you navigate client interactions as a neurodivergent legal professional? Have you found ways to utilise your neurodivergent traits in building client relationships?"

In terms of client interactions, I think I deal with those really well. And that's particularly in reference to clients with neurodivergent conditions or suspected neurodivergent conditions that they may not be aware of. I often use the example, particularly with youth clients, that I am able to sort of help them visualise the charges that they face in different ways and that will perhaps be drawing out a few things and using stick men and things like that on paper to help them see what I'm trying to explain to them and that's a really common trait of people with neurodivergent conditions that we like to visualize what we're reading rather than just reading contents and contents and lots and lots of material all the time.

So I think I bring to conference in particular an ability to sort of relate on that level and try and find a way to change the structure of the conference that can fit for a neurodivergent client.

I think where it becomes slightly difficult sometimes can be that I struggle with structure and it sometimes needs quite a heavy structure in conference and if someone's coming at you with questions that are just not in your structure you can sort of feel derailed. So to try and combat that, what I tend to do is write myself a nice, almost like a to-do list, but a to-do list of questions and key things that I must make sure I ask this client because it's absolutely integral to their case by the time we go into court.

And obviously that also helps combat time pressures in the criminal courts where, you know, you don't get a lot of time sometimes with your clients, but make sure that I've got that set structure that I can pull the situation back to to say, I need these questions answered.

And I think there's tons of coping mechanisms that you can use in order to be able to make those conferences effective and really relate to your clients.

And I take massive pride in being able to do that as a neurodivergent individual.

"If you could travel back in time, what wisdom would you share with your younger self about navigating the legal profession as a neurodivergent person?"

If I could turn back the clock now and speak to young Sophie and sort of say, works out, you end up appearing in the High Court, you do loads of fun trials and you're really great at the job. I think that would have literally taken out so much stress, so much anxiety about things that just really didn't exist and I think I'd probably say to my younger self, you know, go in with confidence. You have got this and you can do this and your dyslexia doesn't stop you from doing this.

And I think the other thing I would say is about time and that you are running your own race and I think when you accept quite early on as I did that things do take me a little bit longer as someone with dyslexia I would have allowed myself to fully embrace having that time rather than stressing myself out about being a little bit late or not understanding something that I didn't quite understand as quickly as other people did and I think with that knowledge, it would have been a lot less stressful and it would have been a much more pleasurable experience.

And I think what I would say to anyone who is coming into the profession with a neurodivergent condition, don't punish yourself and don't think you can't do this or, oh, why don't I understand that as quickly as someone else in class?

Don't spend the time dwelling on those things.

Spend the time on knowing that eventually you will get those things and you will be hopefully in a court somewhere in the country and doing the job that you are capable of doing.

"What is your vision for neuroinclusivity in the legal profession? If you could change one thing about the legal profession to make it better for neurodivergent people, what would that be?"

I think if I could change one thing about the legal profession and neurodiversity, it would be almost the ability to say to people, can we just accept it and now make it better and more inclusive for people with neurodiversity. So often what I find is there's a lot of conversations around, well, we went through it and, you know, we all coped and we didn't have these diagnoses and we didn't have, you know, these things that we knew about, but we, and I feel that we've moved on from that now and we have to move on from that because times are changing and there has to be an acceptance in the legal profession that we actually need to support these people because we bring incredible things to this profession.

And there's a lot of people out there already practicing and doing incredible things without knowing, quite rightly without knowing that they have neurodivergent conditions. But what that doesn't mean is that we just say, well, they didn't know and they're fine. So we should all just carry on as we are. And I think that's a very long winded answer to the question, but the one thing is really hitting acceptance head on and saying that we can do things to make this better and more inclusive.

This was part of ‘Our Voices, Our Stories’, a content series for Neurodiversity Celebration Week 2025. Explore more stories in this series at www.neurodiversityinlaw.co.uk/ncw2025

Together, we can raise awareness and reduce the stigma surrounding neurodiversity in the legal profession because there is strength in all ways of thinking, and no mind should be left behind.