Lewis Silkin has improved its ranking in the Social Mobility Employer Index for the fourth consecutive year, rising to 14th place - up from 18th last year.
The Index was created by the Social Mobility Foundation in 2017 and ranks UK employers according to what they are doing to change how they find, recruit, and advance talented employees from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
Employers are assessed across eight key areas:
- Work with young people
- Routes into the employer
- Attraction
- Recruitment and selection
- Data collection
- Progression, culture and experienced hires
- Advocacy
- Employee survey
The firm’s outreach work received particularly strong feedback from the Social Mobility Index - Lewis Silkin works with schools in social mobility ‘cold spots’, where young people have fewer opportunities to progress. This initiative was also recognised at the recent Social Mobility Awards, with Sophie Jamieson, co-leader of the firm’s Social Mobility Group, winning a ‘Highly Commended and Gold Award’ in the Rising Star category.
Jo Farmer, Joint Managing Partner, said:
At Lewis Silkin we’ve always believed that who your parents are, what school you go to or where you live should not affect your life chances – a belief that comes from the life story of Lewis Silkin, who our firm is named after. The Social Mobility Index assesses the steps that employers are taking to ensure that their workplace is open to talent from all social backgrounds. We’ve made amazing progress on this over the last three years, and I’m really proud that we are now the eighth highest ranked law firm on the Index.