Why City law firms are starting the social mobility push before university
An alliance of more than 60 law firms and in-house teams is trying to open up the profession to young people from less privileged backgrounds.
Contents
Law firms are increasingly engaging with students before university as they seek to widen access to careers in the profession.
PRIME, an alliance established in 2011, estimates around 15,000 students have passed through its programmes, with its earliest participants now progressing through legal careers of their own.
From a young age, Karishma Khosla wanted to become a lawyer but had little idea how to turn that ambition into a career and few connections to help her navigate the profession.
Still determined, she began “endlessly Googling” for opportunities that might give her a way in, and was ultimately selected for a work experience at Weil when she was just 16 years old.
Fast forward to today, Khosla is a trainee at A&O Shearman in London and preparing to move to New York for a seat in the firm’s debt finance practice.
The work experience she completed as a teenager came through PRIME, an alliance of law firms established in 2011 to improve access to the profession for young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
It began with around 20 law firms offering work experience to secondary school students and has since expanded into a network that includes over 60 law firms and in-house teams. It estimates more than 15,000 students have passed through its programmes.
Participating firms span both UK and US-headquartered firms, including Slaughter and May, A&O Shearman, Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Linklaters and Macfarlanes, alongside firms such as Weil, Skadden and Latham & Watkins.
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Finding a way in
For Khosla, while law was something she was interested in from a young age many of the messages she heard from those around her were discouraging.
Growing up in a working class family and attending state school, the cost of studying law and the prospect of graduating without a job made it feel like a risky path.
“Everyone told me law was very competitive: you’ll get to law school, graduate with a law degree and then just be unemployed. Coming from a working-class background, that was a really big turn-off for law,” she says.
For a while, she considered following her aptitude for numbers towards a career in finance instead, but early exposure to law helped change her mind.
She completed PRIME work experience at Weil and Clifford Chance, before going on to early careers programmes at Weil, Linklaters and Clifford Chance. She later completed a winter vacation scheme at A&O Shearman before joining the firm as a trainee.
The significance of the experiences went beyond adding another line to her university application.
“We got realistic insights into what trainees and lawyers actually do, which I think is difficult to get at university, let alone at school,” Khosla said.
That first-hand experience also made it easier to tune out some of the discouraging messages she had heard about pursuing law.
“When you have a taste of something and you know you want it, it’s easier to ignore the people saying you’re going to fail,” she said.
One experience in particular helped cement her interest in law: a mock negotiation.
“I remember leaving the office one day and ringing my mum to say ‘That’s what I want to do with my life. I want to do that every day.’”
I remember leaving the office one day and ringing my mum to say ‘That’s what I want to do with my life.'
At a point when university applications, admissions tests and years of study still stood between her and a legal career, the experience gave Khosla a destination to work towards.
“It was very far away, but it was the dream, and I was almost living it through the PRIME schemes.”
An early start
That experience goes to the rationale behind PRIME’s focus on students who have not yet reached university.
Cat Greenwood-Smith, a Freshfields disputes partner who became executive co-chair of the organisation earlier this year, says there are already numerous initiatives helping university students secure vacation schemes and training contracts, but some of the decisions shaping access to the profession happen years earlier.
Students are choosing A-levels, deciding whether to attend university and selecting degree subjects long before they reach the City recruitment process. For those without lawyers or other professionals in their immediate networks, even relatively basic information about the routes into law may be missing.
Greenwood-Smith experienced that herself. “I did a law degree, because I didn’t know that I could study history or French and then convert later. I had no ready access to information.”
“It’s about broadening horizons at an early stage so that students are making informed choices at the points at which they have to start making the kinds of decisions that can have an impact further down the line,” she said.
The experience
While PRIME requires participants to attend a state school, member organisations can add criteria including eligibility for free school meals, caring responsibilities or asylum seeker status.
The programmes offered by member firms vary significantly, and increasingly extend beyond a single week in an office.
Law Firm | Trainee First Year | Trainee Second Year | Newly Qualified (NQ) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Addleshaw Goddard | £52,000 | £56,000 | £100,000 |
| Akin | £60,000 | £65,000 | £174,418 |
| A&O Shearman | £56,000 | £61,000 | £150,000 |
| Ashurst | £57,000 | £62,000 | £140,000 |
| Baker McKenzie | £56,000 | £61,000 | £150,000 |
| Bird & Bird | £48,500 | £53,500 | £102,000 |
| Bristows | £48,000 | £52,000 | £95,000 |
| Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner | £53,000 | £58,000 | £125,000 |
| Burges Salmon | £49,500 | £51,500 | £76,000 |
| Charles Russell Speechlys | £52,000 | £55,000 | £93,000 |
| Cleary Gottlieb | £62,500 | £67,500 | £164,500 |
| Clifford Chance | £56,000 | £61,000 | £150,000 |
| Clyde & Co | £48,500 | £51,000 | £90,000 |
| CMS | £50,000 | £55,000 | £120,000 |
| Cooley | £55,000 | £60,000 | £157,000 |
| Davis Polk | £65,000 | £70,000 | £180,000 |
| Debevoise | £55,000 | £60,000 | £173,000 |
| Dechert | £55,000 | £61,000 | £165,000 |
| Dentons | £52,000 | £56,000 | £104,000 |
| DLA Piper | £55,000 | £60,000 | £140,000 |
| Eversheds Sutherland | £50,000 | £55,000 | £120,000 |
| Farrer & Co | £48,500 | £51,000 | £89,000 |
| Fieldfisher | £48,500 | £52,000 | £100,000 |
| Freshfields | £56,000 | £61,000 | £150,000 |
| Fried Frank | £55,000 | £60,000 | £175,000 |
| Gibson Dunn | £65,000 | £70,000 | £180,000 |
| Goodwin Procter | £55,000 | £60,000 | £175,000 |
| Gowling WLG | £48,500 | £53,500 | £108,000 |
| Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer | £56,000 | £61,000 | £145,000 |
| HFW | £52,000 | £56,000 | £103,500 |
| Hill Dickinson | £44,000 | £45,000 | £80,000 |
| Hogan Lovells | £56,000 | £61,000 | £145,000 |
| Irwin Mitchell | £43,500 | £45,500 | £78,000 |
| Jones Day | £60,000 | £68,000 | £170,000 |
| K&L Gates | £50,000 | £55,000 | £115,000 |
| Kennedys | £43,000 | £46,000 | £85,000 |
| King & Spalding | £62,000 | £67,000 | £175,000 |
| Kirkland & Ellis | £60,000 | £65,000 | £174,418 |
| Latham & Watkins | £60,000 | £65,000 | £174,418 |
| Linklaters | £56,000 | £61,000 | £150,000 |
| Macfarlanes | £60,000 | £65,000 | £150,000 |
| Mayer Brown | £55,000 | £60,000 | £150,000 |
| McDermott Will & Schulte | £65,000 | £70,000 | £174,418 |
| Milbank | £65,000 | £70,000 | £174,418 |
| Mills & Reeve | £46,800 | £47,000 | £84,000 |
| Mishcon de Reya | £52,500 | £57,500 | £110,000 |
| Norton Rose Fulbright | £56,000 | £61,000 | £140,000 |
| Orrick | £60,000 | £65,000 | £170,000 |
| Osborne Clarke | £55,500 | £57,500 | £97,000 |
| Paul Hastings | £60,000 | £68,000 | £173,000 |
| Paul Weiss | £60,000 | £65,000 | £180,000 |
| Penningtons Manches Cooper | £48,000 | £50,000 | £83,000 |
| Pinsent Masons | £54,000 | £59,000 | £109,000 |
| Quinn Emanuel | n/a | n/a | £189,000 |
| Reed Smith | £55,000 | £60,000 | £135,000 |
| Ropes & Gray | £62,000 | £67,000 | £170,000 |
| RPC | £48,000 | £52,000 | £95,000 |
| Shoosmiths | £45,000 | £47,000 | £105,000 |
| Sidley Austin | £60,000 | £65,000 | £175,000 |
| Simmons & Simmons | £56,000 | £61,000 | £130,000 |
| Simpson Thacher | n/a | n/a | £178,000 |
| Skadden | £58,000 | £63,000 | £177,000 |
| Slaughter and May | £56,000 | £61,000 | £150,000 |
| Squire Patton Boggs | £50,000 | £55,000 | £110,000 |
| Stephenson Harwood | £50,000 | £55,000 | £105,000 |
| Sullivan & Cromwell | £65,000 | £70,000 | £177,000 |
| TLT | £44,000 | £47,500 | £85,000 |
| Travers Smith | £55,000 | £60,000 | £130,000 |
| Trowers & Hamlins | £50,000 | £54,000 | £90,000 |
| Vinson & Elkins | £60,000 | £65,000 | £173,077 |
| Watson Farley & Williams | £51,500 | £56,000 | £107,000 |
| Weightmans | £36,000 | £38,000 | £70,000 |
| Weil | £60,000 | £65,000 | £170,000 |
| White & Case | £62,000 | £67,000 | £175,000 |
| Willkie Farr & Gallagher | £60,000 | £65,000 | £180,000 |
| Winston Taylor | £56,000 | £61,000 | £125,000 |
| Withers | £47,000 | £52,000 | £95,000 |
| Womble Bond Dickinson | £43,000 | £45,000 | £83,000 |
Rank | Law Firm | Revenue | Profit per Equity Partner (PEP) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DLA Piper* | £3,130,000,000 | £2,500,000 |
| 2 | A&O Shearman | £2,900,000,000 | £2,000,000 |
| 3 | Clifford Chance | £2,400,000,000 | £2,100,000 |
| 4 | Hogan Lovells | £2,320,000,000 | £2,400,000 |
| 5 | Linklaters | £2,320,000,000 | £2,200,000 |
| 6 | Freshfields | £2,250,000,000 | Not disclosed |
| 7 | CMS** | £1,800,000,000 | Not disclosed |
| 8 | Norton Rose Fulbright* | £1,800,000,000 | Not disclosed |
| 9 | HSF Kramer | £1,360,000,000 | £1,400,000 |
| 10 | Ashurst | £1,030,000,000 | £1,390,000 |
| 11 | Clyde & Co | £854,000,000 | Not disclosed |
| 12 | Eversheds Sutherland | £769,000,000 | £1,400,000 |
| 13 | Pinsent Masons | £680,000,000 | £790,000 |
| 14 | Slaughter and May*** | £650,000,000 | Not disclosed |
| 15 | BCLP* | £640,000,000 | £790,000 |
| 16 | Simmons & Simmons | £615,000,000 | £1,120,000 |
| 17 | Bird & Bird** | £580,000,000 | £720,000 |
| 18 | Addleshaw Goddard | £550,000,000 | £1,000,000 |
| 19 | Taylor Wessing | £526,000,000 | £1,100,000 |
| 20 | Osborne Clarke** | £476,000,000 | £800,000 |
| 21 | DWF | £466,000,000 | Not disclosed |
| 22 | Womble Bond Dickinson | £450,000,000 | Not disclosed |
| 23 | Kennedys | £428,000,000 | Not disclosed |
| 24 | Fieldfisher | £385,000,000 | £1,000,000 |
| 25 | Macfarlanes | £371,000,000 | £3,100,000 |
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Freshfields, for example, runs a three-year Aspiring Professionals Programme beginning in year 12, which combines career and skills workshops, mentoring and workplace experience and continues after participants leave school.
Around 500 students have participated in the programme and some have later secured training contracts at law firms.
The aim, Greenwood-Smith says, is not to create a direct recruitment pipeline but to build familiarity with professional environments over time. “It’s not that they just come into the office for one summer when they’re 17 years old and then that’s the end.”
Instead, sustained exposure can remove some of the unfamiliarity that candidates without professional networks encounter later.
“It means that the first time they walk through the door for an interview in a professional environment isn’t the first time they’ve ever been into a building like that.”
Knowing the options
For Lara Okur, PRIME helped demystify the legal profession, which she previously knew relatively little about.
Okur completed work experience with Skadden in 2022 while at sixth form college as part of the firm’s first PRIME cohort. The virtual programme gave her the opportunity to meet lawyers across different practices and work with an associate mentor on a research project.
“I always thought lawyers handled divorces and things like that, but it’s a lot more complex,” she says. “I didn’t know about areas like insurance or private equity. It was interesting to see that law isn’t just one thing or one practice.”
I always thought lawyers handled divorces and things like that - I didn’t know about areas like insurance or private equity.
Now going into her third year studying international relations at the University of Sussex, Okur remains connected through PRIME alumni events. Last year, she represented PRIME at PowerUpFest, a legal careers festival, where she found herself explaining routes into the profession to school students.
“I was speaking to them about how you don’t necessarily have to do a law degree to go into law,” Okur said, passing on the kind of information Greenwood-Smith herself lacked when making her own early education choices.
For Okur, the experience also changed how she views her own prospects.
“I always thought maybe I wouldn’t be able to get into law because I didn’t have that higher-end education or those connections and networks,” she says. “But now I feel pretty confident that as long as I have the skills, it doesn’t matter what school I’ve been to. I know I have that opportunity.”
‘Relentless’ applications
Khosla’s experience shows how the benefits of early access can continue well beyond the placement itself. Ahead of applying to jobs, she participated in a mock interview through a programme connected to PRIME.
“I don’t think I did very well in it, to be honest, but it meant all the mistakes were in that mock interview rather than the real thing,” she says.
That preparation helped build resilience through what Khosla describes as a “relentless” application process. Her time inside law firms gave her evidence that she could belong there, even when applications were, at times, unsuccessful.
“Having something under your belt makes it easier to keep going. The application process is relentless, and when you’re facing rejection after rejection without that experience behind you, it’s even harder.”
Privilege markers
Traditional markers of privilege do not always correspond with an individual’s background either. Greenwood-Smith cautions against assuming that someone who attended Oxford or Cambridge necessarily came from an advantaged background, particularly as the universities themselves have sought to broaden their intake.
The more revealing question for law firms, she argues, is whether they are broadening the type of candidates they select.
“Are we recruiting the diverse candidates from those universities or are we still just recruiting in the same moulds that we’ve always recruited from?”
That also means confronting assumptions about what broadening recruitment means for quality. Greenwood-Smith says candidates who have faced greater obstacles can bring precisely the qualities firms already value, including “resilience and grit and a strong work ethic”.
Khosla is an example of how educational labels can obscure someone’s background. Her path from state school to Oxford and then a leading City firm means people can see the university name without seeing the route that preceded it.
I went to state school. I’m still working class. My parents didn’t go to university. I just broke the cycle.
“I prefer to keep quiet that I studied at Oxford because of the assumptions that come with it,” she said. “I went to state school. I’m still working class. My parents didn’t go to university. I just broke the cycle."
Changing the mould
Social mobility is not only about where firms recruit. There are less visible advantages that can impact how prepared someone feels by the time they reach that stage.
“Higher-educated families have different conversations around the dinner table, and their children are more privy to the kinds of discussions that make it easier when they come to interview,” said Khosla.
Giving students earlier access to professional environments is one way PRIME is trying to provide some of that exposure. Demand, however, considerably exceeds supply.
Programmes often receive 1,000 applications for just 20 spots, a disparity that has made expanding the alliance’s membership a priority.
For Greenwood-Smith, one of the harder parts of improving social mobility is reaching beyond those already persuaded of its importance.
Events and discussions on the issue can attract “the same people in the room”, she says. “The challenge is trying to speak to the people who are not in the room.”
| Firm | London office since | Known for in London |
|---|---|---|
| Akin | 1997 | Restructuring, funds |
| Baker McKenzie | 1961 | Finance, capital markets, TMT |
| Davis Polk | 1972 | Leveraged finance, corporate/M&A |
| Gibson Dunn | 1979 | Private equity, arbitration, energy, resources and infrastructure |
| Goodwin | 2008 | Private equity, funds, life sciences |
| Kirkland & Ellis | 1994 | Private equity, funds, restructuring |
| Latham & Watkins | 1990 | Finance, private equity, capital markets |
| McDermott Will & Schulte | 1998 | Finance, funds, healthcare |
| Milbank | 1979 | Finance, capital markets, energy, resources and infrastructure |
| Paul Hastings | 1997 | Leveraged finance, structured finance, infrastructure |
| Paul Weiss | 2001 | Private equity, leveraged finance |
| Quinn Emanuel | 2008 | Litigation |
| Sidley Austin | 1974 | Leveraged finance, capital markets, corporate/M&A |
| Simpson Thacher | 1978 | Leveraged finance, private equity, funds |
| Skadden | 1988 | Finance, corporate/M&A, arbitration |
| Sullivan & Cromwell | 1972 | Corporate/M&A, restructuring, capital markets |
| Weil | 1996 | Restructuring, private equity, leverage finance |
| White & Case | 1971 | Capital markets, arbitration, energy, resources and infrastructure |
| Law firm | Type | First-year salary |
|---|---|---|
| White & Case | US firm | £32,000 |
| Stephenson Harwood | International | £30,000 |
| A&O Shearman | Magic Circle | £28,000 |
| Charles Russell Speechlys | International | £28,000 |
| Freshfields | Magic Circle | £28,000 |
| Herbert Smith Freehills | Silver Circle | £28,000 |
| Hogan Lovells | International | £28,000 |
| Linklaters | Magic Circle | £28,000 |
| Mishcon de Reya | International | £28,000 |
| Norton Rose Fulbright | International | £28,000 |
Law Firm | Trainee First Year | Trainee Second Year | Newly Qualified (NQ) |
|---|---|---|---|
| A&O Shearman | £56,000 | £61,000 | £150,000 |
| Clifford Chance | £56,000 | £61,000 | £150,000 |
| Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer | £56,000 | £61,000 | £150,000 |
| Linklaters | £56,000 | £61,000 | £150,000 |
| Slaughter and May | £56,000 | £61,000 | £150,000 |
Law Firm | Trainee First Year | Trainee Second Year | Newly Qualified (NQ) |
|---|---|---|---|
| A&O Shearman | £56,000 | £61,000 | £150,000 |
| Clifford Chance | £56,000 | £61,000 | £150,000 |
| Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer | £56,000 | £61,000 | £150,000 |
| Linklaters | £56,000 | £61,000 | £150,000 |
| Slaughter and May | £56,000 | £61,000 | £150,000 |
Law Firm | Trainee First Year | Trainee Second Year | Newly Qualified (NQ) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ashurst | £57,000 | £62,000 | £140,000 |
| Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner | £53,000 | £58,000 | £125,000 |
| Herbert Smith Freehills | £56,000 | £61,000 | £145,000 |
| Macfarlanes | £60,000 | £65,000 | £150,000 |
| Travers Smith | £55,000 | £60,000 | £130,000 |
| Firm | Merger year | Known for in London |
|---|---|---|
| BCLP | 2018 | Real estate, corporate/M&A, litigation |
| DLA Piper | 2005 | Corporate/M&A, real estate, energy, resources and infrastructure |
| Eversheds Sutherland | 2017 | Corporate/M&A, finance |
| Hogan Lovells | 2011 | Litigation, regulation, finance |
| Mayer Brown | 2002 | Finance, capital markets, real estate |
| Norton Rose Fulbright | 2013 | Energy, resources and infrastructure, insurance, finance |
| Reed Smith | 2007 | Shipping, finance, TMT |
| Squire Patton Boggs | 2011 | Corporate/M&A, pensions, TMT |
Law Firm | Trainee First Year | Trainee Second Year | Newly Qualified (NQ) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ashurst | £57,000 | £62,000 | £140,000 |
| Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner | £53,000 | £58,000 | £125,000 |
| Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer | £56,000 | £61,000 | £145,000 |
| Macfarlanes | £60,000 | £65,000 | £150,000 |
| Travers Smith | £55,000 | £60,000 | £130,000 |
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