As part of this campaign, the firm has published an innovative social mobility booklet, which provides a platform for people to share their personal stories and experiences, which you can find here. The booklet highlights and celebrates the diverse backgrounds of Travers Smith's workforce, whilst emphasising the different routes people may take into a city law firm. The stories featured come from a wide range of employees from across the firm from both legal and business services, including contributions from partners, our Chief Marketing and Chief People Officers, as well as junior colleagues.

The campaign also includes the launch of an internal social mobility group, composed of people from across the business, working with the firm's D&I Board, and other senior leaders, to promote social mobility across the profession. The group will be focussing on a number of workstreams over the coming months, including; accessing social mobility cold spots, effective allyship, and developing mechanisms to ensure people from less privileged backgrounds are able to reach their full career potential.

This social mobility campaign complements the firm's well-established Corporate Social Responsibility Programme, which delivers a series of projects aimed at raising aspirations, upskilling young people in our local community, as well as providing paid work experiences and internship opportunities to people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Chris Edwards, CSR and Diversity Director, said: "This new project is an important and exciting step forward for Travers Smith. As well as widening access to careers in law and City law firms, organisations, including Travers Smith, also need to create workplaces which enable people from less advantaged backgrounds to thrive, reach their potential, and be their authentic selves. As well as "getting in", we need to place an equal emphasis on ensuring people are able to "get on".

Moira Slape, Chief People Officer, said: "I am extremely proud of the firm's work in promoting social mobility, and very grateful to those colleagues who shared their personal stories with us to create this new booklet and campaign. Creating a space for everyone to bring their whole selves to work is not only the right thing to do, it makes good business sense. We know that people perform better when they can be themselves – they are more productive, feel more connected to their workplace and can build more effective relationships."

The Social Mobility Booklet follows the success of the trailblazing BAME Allyship booklet launched by Travers Smith in November 2019, an innovative guide outlining how people can be better allies for members of the BAME community. The first of its kind, the BAME Allyship booklet outlined 10 actions that allies can take to promote greater BAME inclusion in the legal industry, as well as the wider society. As a result of its effectiveness, it has been used across other sectors and industries, including all the armed forces, NHS Trusts, schools and universities.