FAIRE: Revolutionising social mobility and access to a career in the legal sector
Over 30,500 attendees aged between 16 and 19 have joined our FAIRE events so far.
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’ve been the number one ranked law firm in The Social Mobility Foundation Employer Index for three consecutive years, the leading authority on social mobility workplace best practice in the UK, we won the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award for Small Employers at the Personnel Today Awards 2023, we won Social Mobility Initiative of the Year at the European Diversity Awards 2023, we were named ‘National (British) Winners of the Equity Trailblazer’ at the National British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) Business Awards, we were awarded Best Social Mobility Initiative 2023 at the People in Law Awards, we achieved Social Mobility Initiative of the Year 2022 at the Burberry British Diversity Awards, 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.
Delivering the UK’s biggest virtual student law careers event
Over 30,500 attendees joined us for our FAIRE events which took place in 2021 and 2022. 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.
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