Organised by Spark21The Next 100 Years, has a new campaign to raise £100K to fund an ambitious undergraduate scholarship fund. The Paving The Way campaign will support 30 talented students whose research examines women’s legal history, over a three year period.
The Next 100 Years, the successor project to the First 100 Years, has the First 100 Years, has announced a new campaign to raise money toward an ambitious undergraduate scholarship fund.
The Paving The Way Scholars Fund will support talented students whose research examines women’s legal history and their contribution to the evolution of the UK’s legal system.
The fund will back 30 scholars over a three-year period, starting in 2025 and will be open to men and women from all backgrounds in the final year of their undergraduate degree. They must be studying at a non-Russell Group university and be dedicating their dissertation or research to an aspect of women’s legal history.
The launch of this new initiative marks the ten-year anniversary of the First 100 Years project founded by Dana Denis-Smith in March 2014. It will see each of the 30 scholarships bear the name of a different female legal trailblazer from the first 100 years of women in law, including Dr Ivy Williams, the first woman in England to qualify as a barrister and Carrie Morrison, the first woman to be admitted as a solicitor.
In addition to a grant, each scholar will receive mentoring, the opportunity to speak at Next 100 Years events and potential placements at UK law firms to support them in taking their first steps into legal profession.
Join us in reaching our goal of supporting 3 of our 30 scholars through collective action including our Cornelia Sorabji scholar.
Cornelia was the first female graduate from Bombay University and was the first woman and the first Indian national to study the postgraduate BCL degree at Oxford University. However, she would not receive her degree until thirty years later with the passage of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act. Cornelia was not eligible for the Government of India scholarship to study in England, and therefore completed her studies with the help of funds raised by her British friends.
We want to Pave The Way for our Cornelia Sorabji scholar and 2 others in the same way.
For donations of £100 or more, we will include donors on our Paving The Way Donors Wall.
Learning the lessons from the past whilst inspiring an achievable and better future for a truly diverse legal profession. - Cherie Blair CBE, KC
Paving the way for future generations means being thoughtful about what we create and what we leave behind, being generous with our ideas and encouragement, and critically, knowing when to move aside and let the next generation express themselves and take the wheel! - Elliot Moss
Equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives, mentorship and examples of progress have never felt more abundant in the legal profession, and should absolutely be celebrated but, I feel, what is lacking is active support in our day-to-day work. There are legal practices that get it right, but as individuals we can always do more. This is especially true for women in the legal profession. I think our places are often so hard fought for that we defend them too tightly, forgetting to allow the next generation to shine – in some cases we allow those coming through to fight just as hard. Not only do we need to show others what can be achieved to inspire the next generation, we have to create opportunities to make careers happen without allowing the same barriers to fall down behind us. Being more equitable can also open doors to intersectional diversity, and diversity of thought. For me, paving the way means walking the next generation in alongside us, not always behind us or in our shadow. - Emma Waddingham
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