City Solicitors' Educational Trust (The Trust) was founded by a number of City firms in 1989 as a response to reduced public funding for university education. Historically, the Trust supported the teaching of core level subjects to undergraduates in the UK by helping to fund teaching posts and resources at law faculties which award qualifying law degrees. In this respect, the Trust has made grants to higher educational establishments of over £9 million covering 70 different institutions. In 2007 the Trust, in addition to the grant giving programme, committed to a summer school diversity initiative to encourage applications from students from less privileged backgrounds studying at non-Russell Group universities to consider a career in the law. The summer schools consisted of an intense residential skills-training week held in London for 100 students. Six schools were run between 2008 and 2011.  

City Solicitors Horizons

More recently the Trust has commenced a new initiative under the banner of City Solicitors' Horizons which is a social mobility initiative aimed at improving access to the legal profession for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.   It is being operated in conjunction with the Legal Education Foundation and 18 member firms from the City of London Law Society.  It aims over the next 3 years to recruit 50 students annually from universities in London and the south-east of England to take part in a 3 year programme to be run alongside their undergraduate degrees.  Each intake will benefit from a combination of comprehensive classroom and one-to-one training sessions, mentoring from solicitors at City firms and work experience at City firms.

More information is available at www.citysolicitorshorizons.org