In spite of lacking status (15)
I believe the answer is:
notwithstanding
'in spite' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'lacking status' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'lacking' could be 'no' (eg lacking money means with no money) and 'no' is found in the answer.
'status' could be 'standing' (standing is a kind of status) and 'standing' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for notwithstanding that I've seen before include "Despite" , "Nevertheless" , "Even so" , "... in spite" , "Regardless of" .)