BARBRI takes the D&I gold at the LexisNexis Legal Awards
Global legal education provider, BARBRI, was named the Diversity and Inclusion Award winner at the 2023 LexisNexis Legal Awards last week.
Launched in 2013, the LexisNexis Legal Awards were created to recognise and celebrate excellence and innovation across the legal sector. With 16 categories designed to celebrate individuals, firms, in-house teams, and wider organisations, the winners were announced at a prestigious ceremony at JW Marriott Grosvenor House, located on Park Lane.
With finalists for the Diversity and Inclusion Award including BVL, New Square Chambers, Obelisk Legal Support, Sidley Austin LLP, and Christina Warner (33 Bedford Row), BARBRI was up against fierce competition. However, the provider took home the prize thanks to the introduction of its funding initiative, BARBRI Bridges, which launched in 2021. This has seen BARBRI pledge £125,000 through a series of collaborations, scholarships and beyond to improve diversity, inclusion, and social mobility in the legal sector. It has benefitted over 200 individuals so far, helping 30+ individuals to sit the SQE1 or SQE2 assessments, while three candidates have become qualified as a direct result of this scheme.
Speaking of the win, managing director, Lucie Allen said: “We’re delighted to be recognised for our diversity and inclusion initiative, BARBRI Bridges, as part of this year’s LexisNexis Legal Awards which demonstrates our passion and commitment to delivering on our D&I objectives. We’ve seen our candidates exceed industry averages when it comes to SQE pass rates, which I believe is underpinned by our BARBRI Bridges work, strengthening our course offering to meet the needs of candidates from all backgrounds. I’m incredibly proud of the whole team and the impact that we’ve had so far.”
From this year onwards, BARBRI intends to dedicate £250,000 annually to BARBRI Bridges, taking the initiative one step further with the support of its recently appointed Advisory Board.
Lucie continued: “Despite these positive steps, we understand that there is still some way to go to truly create a legal profession that is representative of society today. We can see from the inaugural SQE1 and SQE2 results that there are attainment gaps in place, and we need to go further to break down any barriers to access surrounding the SQE for aspiring solicitors across different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. This is why we’ve recently appointed an independent Advisory Board, to help us on this mission and to provide their unique industry insights. We look forward to seeing what we will achieve together over the next 12 months and beyond.”
BARBRI also came highly commended in the Award for Legal Supplier Innovation thanks to its industry-leading pedagogy and initial SQE success. Finalists for this category included amicable, Elemental CoSec and Halcyon DocuMigrate.
For more information and the full list of winners, click here: https://www.lexisnexislegalawards.co.uk/website/9292/2023-winners/