FAIRE: Revolutionising social mobility and access to a career in the legal sector

At Browne Jacobson we’re passionate about finding innovative ways to attract future talent. People from lower socio-economic and minority backgrounds are still hugely underrepresented in the legal profession. We want to change this. We want to break down barriers to accessing a legal career and help everyone - whatever their background - get a foot in the door.

We’ve set up FAIRE (Fairer Access into Real Experience) to revolutionise the way law firms recruit future talent and grow an industry-wide culture of inclusivity. FAIRE aims to support social mobility, offering students equal access to work experience that can pave the way for a career in the legal sector. FAIRE is part of our firm-wide commitment to fair working practises, inclusivity, collaboration and making sure we’re at the forefront of conversations about how we can all tackle society's biggest issues.

Delivering the UK’s biggest virtual student law careers event

Over 7,000 attendees joined us for our first FAIRE event, which ran over Tuesday 6 April and Wednesday 7 April 2021. With 50% of attendees from Black, Asian or Minority ethnic communities, and a high proportion from lower socio-economic postcodes, we hosted the FAIRE: virtual work experience and legal career insights event in collaboration with recruitment enterprise business, Young Professionals.

This virtual work experience and careers event was aimed at 16 to 19-year-olds, offering them a glimpse of how a national law firm works, as well as the various career options open to them. The jam-packed schedule included workshops, keynote speakers and Q&A sessions. Speakers included senior partners, directors and senior managers from our central teams at Browne Jacobson, alongside lawyers and trainees, as well as high calibre industry professionals including Joshua Best (founder and President of the 93% club), Chris Daw QC, Ranae Oliver (in-house lawyer at Financial Ombudsman Service), Charlotte Burton-Barker (learning consultant at Adaptis) and I. Stephanie Boyce (President of the Law Society).

Attendees received an e-certificate, to add to their CV to help boost future career prospects. They’ll also have access to future virtual skill sessions, including CV workshops and sessions around commercial awareness and succeeding at assessment centres.

You can read more about this first FAIRE event here.