Have an open day or insight day for disabled students
The legal profession has come a long way with diversity and inclusion. However, disability still seems to be behind. For disabled students there are only a few open days that specifically support disabled people with a career in law. By way of reminder to employers and readers 19% of working age adults are disabled, yet only 3% of solicitors have disclosed a disability.
This means that for aspiring solicitors who are disabled they may be questioning whether law is the right career for them. Particularly, if they are interested a City law firm or a job in particularly competitive areas of the profession.
For more disabled candidates to apply and for more disabled people to join the legal profession, aspiring solicitors need real insight into the firm and for this they need to be attending open days, vacation schemes etc and hearing from or seeing disabled people working for the firm at early talent recruitment events.
Open days (and vacation schemes) can be competitive but the application process may be weighted against disabled candidates and/or not take into account their disability. Holding specific open days/firm events will give disabled people a greater chance of being able to gain an insight into the firm.
Additionally, disability-specific events will encourage them to apply in the first place.
This also helps candidates have more confidence to disclose their disability to graduate recruitment in order to get reasonable adjustments as part of the recruitment process. With the reasonable adjustments they need, they can have a proper chance of getting the training contract.
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