Craig Robinson, the CEO and founder of Ultimate Law Guide ("ULG") recently spoke to students on the Pathways to Law initiative, at the College of Law. Craig talked about his route into the legal profession, experiences as a commercial lawyer and offered career advice to the aspiring lawyers. ULG also made a personal commitment to guide every single student on the Pathways to Law Initiative and to help them go on to fulfil their true potential.

ULG supports the aims of Pathways to law in helping to introduce new avenues to gain entry into the legal profession, and widening the pool of talent that law firms can draw from regardless of their background. This will help to ensure access to the legal profession is based on merit and ability rather than background or pedigree, because it makes sound business sense, and contributes to making the legal profession more representative of the society in which we seek to serve.

The College of Law has invested £2.5 million to the Pathways to Law Initiative, which was jointly launched with the Sutton Trust in October 2006 to help attract a more diverse spread of talent into the legal profession. The Sutton Trust will commit £10 million in funding over the next 5 years to improve aspirations and educational opportunities among able students who are from state schools and socially disadvantaged backgrounds. Five City law firms; Allen & Overy, DLA, Freshfields, Linklaters and Lovells also pledged more than £350,000 to help fund the programme.

Every year, the Pathways to Law Initiative targets 250 potential law students from state schools and non-professional backgrounds who will be the first in their families to go on to university. The initiative will help students with workshops/mentoring and provide work experience within their firms. It was launched after a Sutton Trust report found that the majority of partners at the leading law firms had been educated at private schools.