2016 winner
Hogan Lovells
The Ladder to Law work experience programme was launched in 2010. The original purpose was to work with schools to provide information, encouragement and support, such as work experience, open days and workshops. Now Hogan Lovells are working with universities to provide bursaries, work experience and mentoring to talented students in need of financial assistance. And the firm have introduced an innovative contextual recruitment system to help select candidates for vacation schemes and training contract interviews. And one of their clients, Vodafone, has joined the initiative to give the in-house perspective to budding lawyers. This was a carefully thought through programme which addresses the issues of social mobility in a variety of ways.
From left: Jon Culshaw, Jen Green (Hogan Lovells) and Victoria Smith (Accessprofessions.com)
2nd place
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
The Freshfields Stephen Lawrence Scholarship has been running annually since 2013 to address the under-representation of black and mixed-race males from low income families in large commercial law firms. It brings together more than 100 lawyers from Freshfields, Goldman Sachs and the Bank of England to work with universities to identify students for a bespoke development programme. The scholarship is run by lawyers practicing at the highest level in the sector. Exposure to the scheme has also made an impact on the culture of the firm itself.
2016 SPONSOR
OTHER SHORTLISTED FIRMS
Access Accountancy
