Norton Rose Fulbright named a top 10 UK employer for social mobility

Norton Rose Fulbright has been named one of the top 10 UK employers for social mobility in The Social Mobility Employer Index.

The annual Top 75 Index, published by the Social Mobility Foundation, ranks employers from across all industries based on the actions they take to be open to talent from all backgrounds and to build inclusive workplaces.

Norton Rose Fulbright, which is this year ranked 8th in the index, has spearheaded a number of initiatives to improve social mobility across the industry. It was one of the first large City law firms to introduce an apprenticeship programme, which includes solicitor and paralegal apprenticeships.

Peter Scott, Norton Rose Fulbright’s global managing partner and managing partner, Europe, Middle East and Asia, commented: “It is great to see the progress our firm has made to support the attraction, retention and progression of people from all backgrounds in our business. We want our business to better reflect the communities and cities where we operate. Thank you to everyone involved for all their continued efforts in improving the diversity of our firm.”

The social mobility index ranking coincides with the firm’s launch of RISE, a new two-year work experience programme, designed to provide students with the necessary skills, networks and resources to accelerate their career in the legal sector.

Notes to editors

• Norton Rose Fulbright has spearheaded many initiatives aimed at improving access to careers in law in recent years, as detailed in this Early Careers vodcast and the firm’s Responsible Business report.

• The firm is this year hosting its second intake of Scholars, the Norton Rose Fulbright bursary programme. Both RISE and Scholars are now pipeline programmes into early careers opportunities at the firm.

• Norton Rose Fulbright announced the launch of a pledge in October 2022 to recognise UK legal apprenticeships as an equal pathway into a legal career, joining forces with a group of leading law firms to make the public commitment. The pledge has been formed to highlight the firms’ commitment to apprenticeships and to publicise, for the benefit of current and future apprentices, the recognition of alternative paths to qualification as equivalent to more traditional routes, such as training contracts.

• The pledge follows the launch of the firm’s own legal apprenticeship programme in the UK in 2021, which aims to enable high-performing school leavers from socio-economically diverse backgrounds access legal careers. Over the course of the apprenticeship, 20% of working time is ringfenced for studying, with the tuition fees funded by the apprenticeship levy.

• Peter Scott was a member of the City of London’s first taskforce on socio-economic mobility. The taskforce published its final report on November 30, 2022 setting out a pathway to improve socio-economic diversity in the financial and professional services sector.