Browne Jacobson wins brace of legal industry awards for social mobility programme

Browne Jacobson’s commitment to promoting social mobility in the legal profession was recognised by the legal industry after the firm won two awards at The People in Law Awards 2023.

The firm was presented with the award for Best Social Mobility Initiative which recognises the achievements of those firms that have successfully targeted, attracted, and retained young talent from low socio-economic backgrounds. The firm was also awarded the Grand Prix prize for being the evening’s ‘champion of champions’. 

Senior Partner, Caroline Green, who also leads on diversity, inclusion, and well-being at the firm, said:

“We are delighted to be recognised for our work in this really important area. 

“Since making social mobility a key pillar of our firm strategy and values we have seen the transformative effect it can have on our business, our clients and the lives of future lawyers. 

“As a firm we want to be at the forefront of society’s biggest issues. The progress we have made has come through years of hard work, dedication and commitment by our people, in particular our incredible HR team so it’s wonderful to see their efforts and achievements recognised in winning one of the evening’s most coveted of prizes, the Grand Prix award.”

Browne Jacobson has established a national reputation for its commitment to promoting social mobility in the legal profession. Since 2016 the firm has implemented a series of ground-breaking initiatives including revolutionising its trainee recruitment processes by removing academic barriers, anonymising applications and focusing its outreach work on social mobility ‘cold spots’.

In 2021, the firm launched FAIRE (Fairer Access into Real Experience) – a unique programme offering work experience opportunities to candidates specifically from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Its annual FAIRE events have now attracted 23,500+ students from 2000+ schools, and its virtual insight event in 2022 was the largest legal virtual work experience event in the UK, with 3300+ attendees taking part.

The firm also launched a dedicated mentoring scheme for aspiring Black lawyers, partnered with Forage to launch an interactive online work experience programme to broaden access for aspiring young lawyers and was chosen to be one of only 13 UK businesses who will form the Social Mobility Commission’s (SMC) new Employer Advisory Group.

In recognition of its work, the firm has been named the UK's leading employer in the Social Mobility Foundation’s Employer Index for the last two years.