Freshfields has announced a new social mobility target for the UK, becoming what it says is the first law firm to commit to having 20% of its trainee population from diverse social backgrounds.

Across the 2024-2026 recruitment cycles, the firm will aim to recruit at least 20% of trainees from lower socio-economic backgrounds (LSEBs).

Freshfields, which with 100 training contracts on offer each year is the UK’s joint-second largest provider, said the target “seeks to increase the social diversity of the current trainee population, positioning the firm among the first few to publish specific targets and the first to commit to 20% of the trainee population”.

Freshfields employs the widely-used metric of parental occupation at age 14 to measure an individual’s socio-economic background. The firm said it will review the target after 2026 to "assess progress and make necessary adjustments."

Freshfields’ London managing partner, Mark Sansom, commented: “I am proud of our commitment to continually advance our social mobility priorities, ensuring that everyone at the firm now or in the future has access to the opportunities and support necessary to excel. Setting a social mobility-focused recruitment target is an essential step in expanding access to the legal profession and strengthens the sense of belonging among our future trainees and current employees.”

The move follows Magic Circle rival Slaughter and May last year becoming what it claimed to be the first major law firm to set social mobility targets. The firm said it aimed to have one quarter of its workforce come from LSEBs by 2033, up from its then-baseline of 18.8%. In the same timeframe, the firm said it also intended to increase its proportion of lawyers and business services personnel from LSEBs from 10% to 15% and 34.75% to 40% respectively.

Research conducted in 2021 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority found that 23% of solicitors attended a fee-paying school compared to 7.5% nationally and more than half (58%) came from a professional background, meaning their parents were in occupations classified as professional rather than intermediate or working class. That compares to a figure of 37% nationally. 

An earlier (2018) study by non-profit consultancy Bridge Group also found that individuals from LSEBs were less likely to progress in their careers as lawyers than their more privileged peers, despite being more likely to be the highest performers in their firms at trainee level. The reasons for this were complex and combined societal factors with law firm culture, including a tendency to progress lawyers who share similar traits to those who currently dominate the profession and the extroversion often considered necessary to get on in the profession coming more easily to those who feel at home in that environment. 

Freshfields’ new target, which marks the start of its inaugural Social Mobility Week in the UK today, will run alongside related initiatives at the firm such as its partnership with diverse graduate recruitment specialist Rare Recruitment and the state schools members’ club the 93% Club, the firm said in a statement.

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