1 Crown Office Row

We take very seriously our commitment to encouraging both equality and diversity in chambers and at the Bar generally, in recognition of the need for the profession to be representative of society as a whole. We aim to recruit from as wide a talent pool as possible, and indeed nearly half of our new tenants in the last five years have been women and a significant proportion of our members are from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds or attended state schools.

We are conscious of the financial difficulties entrants to the Bar can face and we have adopted a number of measures to tackle this problem. Our assessed mini-pupillages and pupillages are generously funded and we were one of the first chambers to launch an inclusive mini-pupillage aimed at widening access to the Bar. We offer assessed mini-pupillages to socio-economically disadvantaged applicants and guarantee a first-round interview for pupillage to those who do well.

Within chambers we continue to support our most junior tenants through the provision of interest-free loans and the waiver of chambers’ contribution and rent payments. As part of our efforts to address the issue of the large drop-out rate at the Bar of women of 10-15+ years’ call, we have a policy designed to ensure that we retain members who return from maternity or paternity leave and our clerks are active in supporting returning parents.

We promote a culture within chambers where any issues concerning equality and diversity can be freely raised by members or staff. Through our active E&D committee and our formal and informal mentoring schemes, we encourage the discussion of such issues so that we can monitor and address any concerns as early as possible.

Head of Outreach is an important position within chambers with our previous head, Sarabjit Singh KC, now a Social Mobility Advocate for the Bar Council. Our Current Head of Outreach, Jo Moore, leads our outreach programme with the Sutton Trust working with 16-18 year olds from less advantaged backgrounds with the aim of encouraging them to consider the Bar as a career option. All of which is delivered in partnership with some of the finest universities in the country. 1COR also supports initiatives such as the Inner Temple Pegasus Scheme, Freebar and, in Brighton, the Brighton Legal Clinic.

We are proud to consider ourselves not as a chambers committed to E&D merely ‘on paper’, but committed to E&D as part of our ’DNA’ and in everything we do in practice.