009. Finding Your Path with Barry Matthews

Barry is the CEO of LexJam Consulting and formerly the Director of Legal Affairs and Third Party Sales at ITV Plc. He also sits on the Board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority and assisted in the creation of the Social Mobility Pledge. During the decade spent working as volunteer youth worker at the childhood trauma charity, Body & Soul, Barry became increasingly concerned by the number of young people from low income backgrounds, although academically capable, were not considering a career in law. All too often the fear of the unknown was the key factor in putting these students off even attempting to enter the solicitor profession. Barry wanted to change this. Recognising that in-house counsel do not readily have access to dedicated legal CSR project management resource nor large teams to deliver work experience he set out to devise a model which unlocked the latent goodwill which existed in the in-house community, in turn, enabling students to experience multiple work places meeting a diverse range of professionals. Hence, in 2014, with the help of a number of law firms and corporates the Legal Social Mobility Partnership was created offering places to 20 students in London. In 2017, Barry secured the financial backing of 23 organisations to evolve the LSMP in to a registered charity and broadened its scope to showcase law and accountancy side by side with business – a first in the UK. In doing so, SMBP is able to offer over six hundred places across 19 clusters in 13 different locations nationwide. Hermans LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hermanstewart/ This show was brought to you by Progressive Media Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.