Diversonomics | Season 2 Episode 2 - Access Granted: Leveraging Corporate Social Responsibility Through Legal Social Mobility

There exists a direct correlation between accessibility and social inequality that often goes unaddressed. In today's episode, special guest Barry Matthews, Director of Legal Affairs at ITV in the UK, joins us to share how he uses social mobility partnerships to help disadvantaged students gain work experience and access to the legal profession.

Download podcast

Episode tip

"One of the key things is we're not simply ticking a box by working with kids from disadvantaged backgrounds; we're finding the kids that have the ability to practise and solicit in the future." — Barry Matthews, Director of Legal Affairs, ITV

Resources

Gowling WLG's diversity and inclusion initative Diversonomics | Season 1 Episode 1 - Why your firm needs a diversity & inclusion initiative Diversonomics | Season 1 Episode 2 - Tackling LGBT inclusion in the workplace Diversonomics | Season 1 Episode 3 - Fostering inclusion in a global firm Diversonomics | Season 1 Episode 4 - Overcoming bias in the legal profession Diversonomics | Season 1 Episode 5 - Building a better workforce through inclusive recruitment Diversonomics | Season 1 Episode 6 - Why your firm should undergo unconscious bias training Diversonomics | Season 2 Episode 1 - Coming attractions: A sneak peek at season 2 of Diversonomics training Episode hosts

Roberto Aburto

Roberto Aburto is an associate in Gowling WLG's Ottawa office, practising in municipal law and civil litigation, with a focus on real estate disputes, land use planning law and commercial litigation.

He is also an active member in the swimming and lifesaving community, serving on the board of directors for the Lifesaving Society (Ontario Branch) as the corporate secretary/legal adviser, and on the Lifesaving Society (National Branch) National Team Selection Committee for Lifesaving Sport.

He is also co-chair of Gowling WLG's Diversity and Inclusion Council and is committed to promoting these principles.

To learn more about Roberto, visit his bio or connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Sarah Willis

Sarah Willis is an associate in Gowling WLG's Ottawa office, practising in the areas of commercial and civil litigation, and medical defence law. Sarah also has ecommercial and civil litigation experience in a variety of areas, including contractual and construction law disputes, tort actions, and small claims court claims. While in law school, Sarah was an oralist in the 2013 Willms and Shier Environmental Law Moot competition, sat as an executive on the Women and Law Association, and was the vice-president of the class of 2013 council in her final year.

To learn more about Sarah, visit her bio or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Episode guest

Barry Matthews

Director of Legal Affairs and Third Party Sales at ITV in the UK.

To learn more about Barry, connect with him on LinkedIn.

Subscribe on iTunes

Don't want to miss an episode, or want to tell us how we're doing with a rating or review? Visit us on iTunes!

Podcast transcript

Roberto: Welcome to Diversonomics. The podcast about diversity and inclusion from Glowing WLG. I am your co-host, Roberto Aburto, practicing in municipal law.

Sarah: And I'm your co-host, Sarah Willis, practicing in commercial litigation and professional liability. We are absolutely thrilled to welcome today, Barry Matthews, who is the Director of Legal Affairs and Third Party Sales at ITV in the UK. Barry's one of the leaders of the Legal Social Mobility Partnership, "LSMP", which is a volunteer lead organization, dedicated to broadening access to the solicitor profession in the UK, by providing opportunities to young people who would not otherwise have had access to the legal world. We're delighted to welcome Barry and we look very forward to discussing this fantastic and much needed initiative with him today. Welcome Barry.

Barry: Hi. Lovely to be here. Thank you for inviting me on.

Roberto: Barry, thanks so much for taking the time. I know Lorna Gavin, that we had on last season, she was in Canada recently as we continue to share our diversity initiatives with our UK friends at Gowling WLG. I had a chance to hear a bit about this initiative from you recently. I understand that the partnership was awarded the CSR Program of the Year in 2016 through the Legal Business Awards. Congratulations for that.

Barry: Thank you very much.

Roberto: Can you please tell our listeners a little bit about the LSMP and its mandate?

Barry: Sure. The Legal Social Mobility Partnership was devised in 2014. It came off the back of a scheme that I created with Slaughter and May in 2013. There was already a long history of private practice law firms offering a weeks' worth of work experience for kids who wouldn't necessarily have the ability to access our world, and broadly that had been done under the banner of an organization called PRIME. PRIME was an initiative set up by David Morley, probably 5 or 6 years back. What PRIME effectively is is a set of standards. Those standards stipulate that x number of places will be devoted to students from disadvantaged backgrounds when it comes to...