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. In 2021 we have been recognised for our commitment to this. We are the UK’s leading employer in the Social Mobility 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. Click here to find out more

Delivering the UK’s biggest virtual student law careers event

Over 13,000 attendees joined us for our FAIRE events which took place in April and October 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 Joshua Best (founder and President of the 93% club), Chris Daw QC (Barrister, BBC TV presenter), Ranae Oliver (in-house lawyer at Financial Ombudsman Service), 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), Shaun Wallace (Barrister and TV quizzer), Chrissie Wolfe (CEO of Law & Broader), Paul McConnell (Head of Employability at University of Birmingham Law School), Mary Bonsor (CEO – F-Lex 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.

You can read more about our FAIRE events here.