Over 13,000 attendees aged between 16 and 19 have joined our FAIRE events so far. Here's what some of them had to say.
At Browne Jacobson we believe the legal profession needs all voices to reflect the society it serves, so we’re passionate about finding innovative ways to attract diverse 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 encourage diverse talent into the profession, and to grow an industry-wide culture of inclusivity. FAIRE aims to support social mobility, offering students equal access to paid 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. We’ve been widely recognised for our commitment to this; we’re the UK’s leading employer in The Social Mobility Foundation Employer Index 2021, the leading authority on social mobility workplace best practice in the UK, we were rated as one of the UK’s leading law firms in The Times Best Law Firms 2022, we won the D&I initiative of the Year Award at the British Legal Awards 2021, we won the Innovation in Diversity and Inclusion award at the FT Innovative Lawyers Europe 2021, we won the Innovation Award at the UK Social Mobility Awards 2021 and the Best Talent and Inclusion Initiative Award at The Lawyers Awards.
Our free, flexible virtual work experience programme offers the chance to experience law firm life wherever you are and whenever you like.
We’ve partnered with Forage to bring you six practical modules, covering different legal specialisms - employment, commercial, education, clinical negligence, public law, and real estate. Study them in your own time, gain invaluable career insights and a certificate to add to your CV to help your job applications shine.
Over 13,000 attendees joined us for our FAIRE events which took place in 2021. With 58% 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 events in collaboration with recruitment enterprise business, Young Professionals.
The virtual work experience and careers events were 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 schedules 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 Shaun Wallace (Barrister and star of ITV’s ‘The Chase’), Chris Daw QC (Barrister, BBC TV presenter), Ranae Oliver (in-house lawyer at Financial Ombudsman Service), I. Stephanie Boyce (President of the Law Society), Nathan Miebai (Senior District Prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service), Peter Watson (CEO of Watson’s Daily, the leading trainer of commercial awareness skills), Chrissie Wolfe (CEO of Law & Broader), Paul McConnell (Head of Employability at University of Birmingham Law School), Mary Bonsor (CEO of Flex Legal), Sally Penni MBE (Barrister, Author and leading legal podcast presenter) and Lubna Shuja (Vice President of The Law Society).
Attendees received an e-certificate to add to their CV to help boost future career prospects.
