Thank you for taking the time to post and tell us your story.
Firstly, there is a massive gulf between the firms you have applied to and the high street. There will be hundreds of firms that will provide your much more similar work to the likes of K&E than a high street firm. It is good you have found your focus, especially given how busy you are currently, but I would encourage you to consider firms outside of the five you have applied to at a later date. It sounds like you may have done this in the past though, if you have applied to other firms like Linklaters, and that it’s just five firms this cycle?
You are right that your circumstances around your A-levels are not an excuse. They are much bigger than that - they are clear and serious extenuating circumstances, something that firms should (and most likely will) take very seriously. I hope you are providing context like the fact you were a carer for your parent when explaining these in applications, as this is ultimately the part that’s most important here - finding out the commitments you had outside of your studies that were outside of your control but absolutely (and rightly so) your priority.
If you are highlighting your extenuating circumstances in applications, I do feel there is something else here that is potentially is the area for development.
It’s hard to pin point it specifically, but for instance (and this might not be the case it’s just something I picked up from your post), the mixture of different things you have done (masters degree, marketing, self employment) can sometimes cause a “does this person make a commitment or stick to things?” concern - at one of the firms I used to work at, we called this stickability as they wanted people who could make long term careers at the firm and wouldn’t just try law out and then change their path shortly after qualification. Alongside this, it can sometimes cause concerns around whether law is what you really want to do - I have seen plenty of people who have been self employed really struggle to explain why they want to move away from the freedom of self employment to an environment that probably couldn’t be more rigid and structured in terms of hierarchies and who does what.
I must stress this is just me trying to potentially highlight what could be an issue - I could be very wrong here!
