Bristol: Local law society runs scholarship scheme
Eleven organisations are to receive grants totalling £360,000 to pay the costs of up to 190 aspiring solicitors from disadvantages backgrounds sitting the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE).
The money in the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) SQE access and reinvestment fund comes from contractual penalties paid by SQE provider Kaplan.
The entry fee for the SQE1 is currently £1,934 and £2,974 for SQE2. Applications for the fund opened in March [1] for organisations that support aspiring solicitors from disadvantages backgrounds.
The successful applicants were:
- Aberystwyth University Veterans’ Legal Link – for students in Wales who have faced personal barriers and are undertaking voluntary legal work experience at the university’s clinic in their route to qualification.
- Accutrainee – its scholarship programme is focused on social mobility.
- Black and Proud CIC – scholarships for Black heritage aspiring solicitors.
- Bristol Law Society – its scholarship scheme is for aspiring solicitors in the Bristol and Bath area who can show their financial circumstances have acted as a barrier and that they intend to practise in the region.
- Law Training Centre – it offers a range of scholarships to students for its SQE courses.
- Legal Social Mobility Fund – formerly known as the Aspiring Solicitors Foundation.
- Social Welfare Solicitors’ Qualification Fund – set up by the City of London Solicitors Society, it is open to applicants who are employed in a role where at least 70% of their work is social welfare law, and can demonstrate both financial need for support and a commitment to working in social welfare law for at least two years post qualification.
- The College of Legal Practice – its scheme is open to self-funding candidates enrolled on one of its SQE courses who can demonstrate significant financial hardship plus at least one specific barrier limiting their progress to qualification.
- The Law Society – its Diversity Access Scheme is for aspiring solicitors from under-represented groups, those who face significant challenges and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
- The University of Central Lancashire – the scheme is open to the university’s students who are self-funding with limited or no access to family support, personal savings or private finance and have experienced significant personal hardship or disadvantage.
- The University of Law – this scheme will support care-experienced students enrolled on one of its SQE courses and are self-funding.
SRA chief executive Paul Philip said: “One of the objectives of the SQE is to promote a diverse profession by removing artificial and unjustifiable barriers. Our decision to distribute the fund in this way reflects our commitment to meeting the SQE objectives.
“The fund recognises that talent, not financial circumstances, should determine who can become a solicitor. Up to 190 candidates could be supported through the scheme. We look forward to following their journeys.”
The fund is a one-off but could be revived depending on further penalty payments. The SRA said it would monitor the impact of this round and use the findings to inform future access and reinvestment initiatives.