Bar’s mobility work honoured
The Bar Council’s Bar Placement Week, which aims to boost social mobility within the profession, has scooped the Award for Diversity and Inclusion at the Halsbury Legal Awards.
Extended from London to Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, the initiative gives high-achieving Year 12 students from low-income backgrounds a week’s work experience and training in advocacy.
Nicholas Lavender QC, Chairman of the Bar, said: “Initiatives such as the Bar Placement Week... help the legal profession to tap into a wider talent pool, which will have longer term benefi ts for the future of the legal profession.”
Taryn Lee QC, Chair of the Bar Council’s Social Mobility Committee, added: “The very fact there were so many strong initiatives shortlisted for this award shows that the legal sector is on the right path when it comes to social mobility, inclusion and diversity.”
The Bar Council partnered with Aim Higher West Midlands (Birmingham), Pathways to Law (Leeds and Manchester) and the London Inns, Advocacy Training Council and Social Mobility Foundation (London) in delivering the scheme.
Also honoured in the Halsbury Awards was the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law, an independent research institute, which won the Rule of Law Award. Lord Judge, the former Lord Chief Justice, received the Lifetime Achievement award. Sir Alan Moses, chair of the new press regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation, was awarded Legal Personality of the Year.
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