Norton Rose Fulbright to help fund underprivileged aspiring lawyers through university

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By Thomas Connelly on

Ten £5k bursaries up for grabs

Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) is looking to ease the financial burden of university as part of a new support programme aimed at aspiring lawyers from underprivileged backgrounds.

The global law firm’s new bursary scheme, dubbed Scholars, will provide awards of £5,000 to ten first or second year undergraduate students who demonstrate a “strong interest” in pursuing a career in law, but face socio-economic barriers to access the necessary resources and connections to succeed.

Successful candidates will also have access to mentoring from the firm’s lawyers, attend insight days and skills based workshops as well as receive additional support in vacation scheme and training contract applications.

Eligible candidates will have an unconditional offer, have been officially accepted by their chosen university or have already commenced their studies at university in the UK. You will also need to have achieved AAB at A-Level (or equivalent).

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NRF Europe, Middle East and Asia chair, Farmida Bi, commented:

“This programme furthers our Corporate Responsibility and Diversity & Inclusion strategies, with a particular focus on advancing social mobility and supporting young people. We recognise the proportion of people from lower socio-economic backgrounds in the UK’s legal profession has remained largely unchanged in recent years and we want to ensure that people from all backgrounds have the opportunity to excel.”

Bursary seekers, who will need to explain why they’re interested in pursuing a career in law as part of the application, have until 15 October to apply.

The launch of the new scheme comes a little under a year after the firm implemented a series of diversity targets for staff, including an aim to have 25% Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) trainees in the UK each year. This followed similar moves from top outfits such as Allen & Overy, Linklaters and Herbert Smith Freehills.

NRF isn’t the only big law firm offering bursaries to would-be lawyers. Earlier this summer Legal Cheek reported that partners at Gowling WLG were helping fund Black students through law school as part of a new partnership with Birmingham University.

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