New recruitment techniques such as CV-blind interviewing, unconscious bias training and situational judgement tests are being introduced to increase social mobility and diversity among trainee solicitors – but are these just cosmetic changes or will they make a real difference?

Significant strides have been made to increase access to the profession – the latest Diversity League Table from the Black Solicitors Network (BSN) puts women trainees at 56% and ethnic minority trainees at 17% – though it still is not filtering through to the higher echelons.

Measuring improvements in social mobility is more difficult, with widespread concern that any successes may be hit by the ‘double whammy’ of increased student debt and fewer training contracts.

Research for the Sutton Trust has calculated that students are leaving university with an average debt of £44,000. It estimates that the average lawyer will still be repaying their student loan into their 40s – and that is before they commit to the cost of the Legal Practice Course.

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Rare, set up in 2005, offers candidates from diverse backgrounds free, one-to-one personal development sessions. It was also selected to run the Sutton Trust’s new Pathways Plus scheme to help talented first-year undergraduates get vacation schemes.

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