Working class students face disproportionate barriers at university and are dropping out without graduating in increasing numbers, while universities are not doing enough to provide support, new research has revealed.

Serious interventions are needed to improve diversity in the overwhelmingly white, male and privileged judiciary of England and Wales, a human rights group has said after reporting that the country’s judges are among the least diverse of a host of developed nations.

City law firm Kingsley Napley announced that its ‘BAME & Allies Network’ has changed its name to “the Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage (REACH) group,” in a blog post on its website.

Find out how Gowling are investing in diversity and inclusion as parts of its central vision.

How are robotics and automation fated for the retail industry?

The Law Society is in support of a five-point pathway of tangible steps to boost social mobility and break the City’s ‘class ceiling’ following a report from the City’s Socio-Economic Diversity Taskforce.

LawCareers.Net has teamed up with diversity organisations Aspiring Interns and upReach to offer free places to LawCareersNetLIVE.

The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has published a diversity strategy for the next two years after a report it commissioned found that much progress still needs to be made in opening up the barristers’ profession to people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. 

Bridging the Bar’s (BTB) 2024/25 Academy is set to begin in September, with the aim of increasing diversity at the Bar by preparing 100 aspiring barristers from non-traditional backgrounds for pupillage applications.

Google Ventures has backed Lawhive in a £9.5 million funding round, taking a stake in the British legal technology start-up developing an ‘AI paralegal’.

The shining lights of the student pro bono scene were celebrated on 26 April at the annual LawWorks & Attorney General Student Pro Bono Awards. Held at the House of Commons, the awards are designed to recognise the exceptional work being done by students and their law schools around the UK in the provision of free legal advice and support.

On 8 July 2026, University of Exeter student Zohra Amin, who grew up in West Drayton, was recognised at the eighth annual Student Social Mobility Awards.

Organisers of the 10km London Legal Walk on 19 May 2014 are calling for more participants to sign up and raise money for charities providing free legal advice in London.

The Times has teamed up with leading barristers’ chambers 2 Temple Guardians to launch the Times Law National Student Mooting Competition.

The Law Society of England and Wales has awarded 16 scholarships to aspiring solicitors through its Diversity Access Scheme (DAS), which aims to improve social mobility and increase diversity within the legal profession. 

The research showed that many students were unable to complete mini-pupillages without funding, creating a huge barrier for less-privileged students because legal work experience is viewed as vital by many chambers.

The Law Society’s Diversity Access Scheme is now accepting applications for its 2018 round of scholarships until Sunday 8 April.

On Saturday 25 February the first CityLawLIVE student conference was held in London, bringing together around 160 students keen on a career in the City with firm representatives and industry experts.

Lawyer2B has reported that Eversheds has launched a new student academy that aims to support them from A-levels right up to graduation.

Statistics in a recently published annual report show that The College of Law’s Pathways to Law scheme has actively helped young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to gain places at leading universities.