TESTIMONIALS. “For justice in the image of the people”, in Douai, a preparatory class open to scholarship holders to diversify the profession of magistrate

Every year since 2008, around fifteen students from low-income families join the Douai talent preparatory class to take competitions for the National School for the Judiciary. An alternative to expensive private training, which aims to strengthen social diversity within an elite profession. We met them.

They come from modest families and grew up in Saint-Etienne, Bayeux, Reunion or in the mining area. Nothing, or almost nothing, has predestined them to the professions of the judiciary, of which they are trained costly and the elitist image. But thanks to Douai’s Talent Preparatory Class (CPT), social status is no longer a crippling barrier to entry into the profession.

This preparation for “equal opportunities” – there are five more in France – opened its doors in 2008 with the ambition of diversifying recruitment in the competition for the National School of Magistrates. “We are criticized for being monochromatic in terms of social class, observes Pascal Marconville, first general counsel at the Court of Appeal of Douai. This preparatory class must contribute to having justice in the image of its population”.

Each year, the institute welcomes around fifteen master’s level students, recruited on the basis of their candidacy and social criteria. In addition to financial aid, students benefit from personalized support from a magistrate, judge or prosecutor. The latter offers, on a voluntary basis, methodological and moral support to his student, who undertakes a year of intense work.

On Wednesday 4 January, a meeting was organized between the students and the godfathers or godmothers in the Merlin room of the judicial court of Douai. There were the 17 recruits of the 2022-2023 promotion, we collected the testimonies of three of them.

Théo Grincourt intends to escape social determinism. Born in Roost-Warendin, in the former mining area, the 24-year-old is the “only to have the high school diploma in the family”. However, in most magistrates come from wealthy backgrounds. Almost 63% of them have entrepreneurial parents, public service executives, or exercise a liberal or intellectual profession. To become a judge or prosecutor would therefore be an affront to statistics.

“Sociological damn, we’ll come out of it”, wants to believe this northerner. He discovered the world of justice during his studies of it. “It is thanks to my history teacher, who pushed me to enter Khâgne and then Sciences-Po, he says. Then I did an internship at the Douai public prosecutor’s office”. A shot for the young man who, since then, has dreamed of embracing the profession of magistrate.

For this, he relies on the “methodology” et “financial aid” offered by the Douai editorial team. At the end of the written and then oral tests, he hopes to be admitted to the ENM competition, which he missed last year. It must be said that this school is one of the most selective in the civil service, with a success rate between 5% and 8% depending on the year.

Théo Grincourt already has a very clear vision of how he would like to practice his profession as a judge. “With necessary hindsight and some humility, He explains. You have to know how to hide behind the dress and know how to make yourself small”.

Like her other companions, the year started last October for Léa Ducatez. This 23-year-old woman from Isère chose the preparatory class in Douai, where the Northern Court of Appeal is located, because “prefers rurality to big cities”.

With a mother who teaches French and a pruner father, the little girl “he would not have had the means” undergo private training, often expensive, to prepare for the ENM competition. “Otherwise I would have had to work on the side, explains. There I don’t have to think about money, I can work peacefully”.

Beyond the financial benefits of the preparation, Léa Ducatez praises the merits of its operation. “We are in a small group and there is no competition between us, she rejoices. Then with the tutoring the magistrates give us advice on the method and allow us to identify the spirit of the competitions and the function».

Originally from Bayeux, mother merchant and computer father, Inès Fouron did not have a role model in the world of justice. “I am very different from my parents, I have a more literary profile”, explains.

It is a 3rd year internship with a lawyer, in Caen, which will be the trigger. The teenager will ask her father to take her to see the trials at the Bobigny court. “Entire Afternoons” she says. “Becoming a magistrate has become a dream that has guided me for ten years now”.

Next May, he will attempt the ENM competitions for the second time in a row, after passing the writtens but failing the oral last year. “This is the most important year of my life” assures the young Norman. Giving a chance to those who have failed is also one of the missions of this Douai talent preparation.

“It’s important to me to have justice that represents people and the diversity within it,” concludes the student.