Looking after the future

Some good news at last. Even I have become worn down with what can sometime seem like endless bad news. If it's not "firms going bust" it's the "return of the old management style" for those firms which think that the recovery has started.

It is good, therefore, to see that Herbert Smith are playing a bit of a long game with their 'Networked' programme (more here) in which they will support five Year 12 students from 'some of London's most deprived boroughs'. In response to complaints that the legal profession was essentially a closed-shop to people from poorer backgrounds (as reported by Alan Milburn in 2009) this does seem to be a serious attempt to show that background need not be a barrier to success in the law.

It is interesting to see solicitors getting involved in this. The Inns of Court have, for many years, run scholarship programmes in order to ensure that access to the bar is not restricted to the rich. It's good to see that solicitors are joining in.