Socio-economic Background

Stephenson Harwood Scholarship Award

Our scholarship award is open to students from lower socio-economic backgrounds and offers £15,000 per year to cover the costs of university fees and contribute to living expenses. Recipients have a mentor from the firm, are invited to insight days, offered work experience, and guaranteed a place at an assessment centre for a training contract.

Watch this video to hear from Daisy Faraday and Mir Tasin, two scholarship holders. To find out more about our scholarship programme and how to apply, click here.

To find out more about what we do to promote equal access to law, click here.

Removing financial barriers in the recruitment process

We strive to ensure that there are no financial barriers for those applying for our training contracts. In addition to paying the London Living Wage to all placement scheme students, we organise and fund accommodation for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds who live outside London. We provide lunch each day for all students to reduce their costs whilst they are with us.

Contextualised recruitment

We use the RARE contextual recruitment system in our graduate selection process. By contextualising the performance of applicants, the tool aims to enable us to identify 'stand-out' candidates, regardless of background.

We recognise that navigating a training contract can be even more challenging for those without family members or networks with experience in professional services.

In 2024, we introduced the Articles Plus programme, which offers Trainee Solicitors from lower socio-economic backgrounds the opportunity to participate in group and individual coaching sessions that support them to successfully navigate their trainee and qualification journey.

We voluntarily report on our socio-economic pay gap data in our annual UK Diversity Pay reporting. You can find those reports here.