Making law accessible to all | A&O Shearman careers

Find out more about our partnership with Aspiring Solicitors and how we’re breaking down barriers to the legal profession.

Zoe Brown, Senior Head of Coaching and Strategy, and May Newton, Talent Manager and Coach at Aspiring Solicitors, discuss why the partnership with A&O Shearman is a perfect pairing as we aim to increase the number of underrepresented backgrounds in the legal industry.

At A&O Shearman, we want to make law accessible for all. That’s why we partner with Aspiring Solicitors to remove barriers to the legal profession for candidates from underrepresented backgrounds.

Aspiring Solicitors are an organisation set up to promote meritocracy and inclusion throughout the legal industry. A large part of their work is supporting people through the recruitment process for vacation schemes and training contracts, and then through their training contract to help them secure an NQ role on qualification.

A perfect partnership

Since 2015, we’ve worked with Aspiring Solicitors on several initiatives, from the coaching and development of candidates to diversity-specific events and virtual diversity-focused law fairs.

May Newton, Talent Manager and Coach at Aspiring Solicitors, is proud of what we’ve accomplished together so far but is always looking at what’s next.

“We've worked really closely with A&O Shearman for a number of years. I think what is really nice is that their journey with diversity and inclusion is always developing. They’re always challenging themselves. And that mirrors exactly what we do. We want to make sure that we are continuing to develop our support for our members to ensure that we are achieving.”

Building a relationship that makes a difference

Aspiring Solicitors work to give underrepresented groups confidence and motivation in relation to applications and to improve their practical, legal and commercial skills. Unlocking that confidence and understanding enables candidates across all diversity strands to have better access to the legal sector and succeed in the legal profession.

That means working with us across multiple initiatives that address different barriers to inclusion, from diversity-focused events through to coaching and development. Aspiring Solicitors have worked with the firm on industry-wide initiatives such as Women in Law.

May is particularly proud of the female-focused work they’ve done together: “We’ve run our Women in Law event with A&O Shearman and it’s incredibly inspiring to hear about people’s journeys. We hope to open up the conversation, listen to more diverse perspectives and increase meritocracy and a sense of inclusion across the legal industry”.

They also work on programmes specific to our firm like the Virtual Diversity Law Fairs which came out of the pandemic.

Zoe Brown, Senior Head of Coaching and Strategy at Aspiring Solicitors, reflected on how our partnership has grown:

“We also previously partnered with the firm on another Black Aspiring Solicitors scheme, which was specifically for vacation scheme eligible candidates coming from black or mixed black heritage. It’s one of these partnerships that have wonderfully grown across the years in an organic way”.

This organic growth eventually led to A&O Shearman’s development of the new Black Student Lawyer Programme.

Closing the knowledge gap

Aspiring Solicitors have already made a huge impact on the industry, helping over 8000 candidates secure training contracts since 2013. For Zoe, it all comes back to helping people as individuals achieve their potential and open up the legal sector.

“We want to close the knowledge gap and make candidates more comfortable and confident that they have the knowledge they require in order to succeed”, says Zoe. “So, building that personal confidence, that can do attitude, whether that’s across a series of one-to-one coaching calls or a group session that is focused specifically on topics like curbing impostor syndrome or how to demonstrate leadership skills.”

Ways in which Aspiring Solicitors could help you:

Career coaching.
Mentoring schemes.
Legal events, the commercial awareness competition and law fairs.
Work experience and vacation schemes.
Membership of the biggest legal diversity network.

See more about Aspiring Solicitors initiatives here.

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