In 2015 Stevens & Bolton joined PRIME, a national alliance of law firms across the UK committed to broadening access to the legal profession.
By being a member of PRIME (http://www.primecommitment.org), Stevens & Bolton is committed to providing high quality work experience opportunities to bright young people from less privileged backgrounds, who might otherwise not have the opportunity to access legal careers.
Working with the Social Mobility Foundation (SMF), we were delighted to have hosted our second internship, increasing the number of 17 year old students to four, which we all enjoyed and which the students found very valuable. All of these students have indicated an interest in a career in law in the future, and many of them will be the first generation in their family to attend university.
Feedback we received from the SMF last year indicated that all the students said that the internship exceeded their expectations, that it had increased their desire to enter the legal profession and that they would like to work at Stevens & Bolton in the future. We are hopeful to receive such positive feedback this year.
Stevens & Bolton is also committed to providing a structured mentoring programme to support these students throughout the year.
Beverley Flynn, Head of the CSR group at Stevens & Bolton, commented “Following the success of our work experience programme last year, we were delighted to increase the number of students invited to take part this year. Stevens & Bolton is committed to providing mentoring and work experience placements for bright students, to enable them to find out how the legal profession works and help them gain a real insight to the profession.”
Ken Woffenden, Managing Partner of Stevens & Bolton added: “We are very proud to be able to give these students high quality work experience. It is harder than ever for bright young people from less privileged backgrounds to access the legal profession. Many people in our firm, myself included, have benefited from social mobility and we think it is important to give something back by taking part in this excellent scheme.”