A national fund designed to boost social mobility within the legal profession, address the recruitment and retention crisis, and ultimately improve access to justice has been launched. 

New research from the Social Mobility Foundation has revealed that those from working-class origins earn on average 13.05% less than their middle and upper-class peers.

Solicitors’ firms across the legal profession are making use of the government’s employee furlough scheme as they look to mitigate the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nearly 80% of UK employers have a gender pay gap that favours men in 2022-2023.  

Slaughter and May is “delighted” to have partnered with the 93% Club, Boston Consulting Group, Ernst & Young and JLL to create a new professional network – 93% Professionals – designed to provide a supportive community for state-educated people and address the critical gap in the journey from education to a top career. 

The gender pay gap for partners and employees at Freshfields has reduced to 57.2% according to figures published at the end of March 2020.

Fifteen law firms and other legal sector organisations have made this year’s list of the top 100 LGBT-inclusive employers, compiled by charity Stonewall.

Many law firms, in-house legal departments and other organisations including the Government Legal Department have become the founding signatories of the Law Society’s Pro Bono Charter. 

Pinsent Masons has been named the UK’s most inclusive employer by LGBT-rights charity Stonewall, while Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) and Baker McKenzie are the other law firms to rank in the top 10 in Stonewall’s top 100 employers index for 2019.

Global law firms Ropes & Gray and Sidley Austin have retained 100% of their trainees.

Global disability network The Valuable 500 has reached its target to get 500 global businesses to add disability inclusion to their business leadership agenda, including several law firms.

New research has revealed that City law firms are hiring at a rapid rate, with a 14% annual rise in vacancies recorded in the capital.

Nineteen leading law firms have signed up to ‘the social mobility pledge’, an initiative aimed at tackling the depressing lack of upward social mobility in British society.

As law students will be keenly aware, January marks the onset of application deadlines for many vacation schemes and work placements.

Some 12 City firms have been named among this year’s top 100 LGBT-friendly employers by leading equality charity Stonewall. 

Are law firms still recruiting this year given the coronavirus pandemic? Can I still apply for a training contract this summer?

More than 90% of UK law firms that responded to a survey by accountancy network MHA said they had made a profit since March 2020.