Fi Das, the Law Society of Scotland’s Development Outreach Officer, joined the Lawscot Foundation and the Law Society of Scotland last year. As we celebrate our 10th anniversary, Fi reflects on what she hopes the next 10 years will look like and what we have achieved in our first decade.
‘But I don’t know anyone who knows anything about law.’ This was one of the first things a school student said to me when talking to them about studying Law at university. It was a conversation I had time and time again in a previous job, advising young people from under-represented backgrounds wanting to go on to higher education. When I got the opportunity to come work with the Lawscot Foundation, a charity whose main aim is to support students facing socioeconomic barriers get a legal education, I knew it was something I couldn’t pass up.
“The landscape for students and new lawyers has changed dramatically in the last decade, but we know that opportunity and access is still not equally available to all.”
The Lawscot Foundation was founded by the Law Society of Scotland in 2016 as part of their work on ‘fair access to the legal profession’; the Law Society knew that social mobility was key to working towards that. 10 years later, this is still a priority and is what sits at the heart of the Lawscot Foundation. The landscape for students and new lawyers has changed dramatically in the last decade, but we know that opportunity and access is still not equally available to all. There is still work to be done, and the Lawscot Foundation has a prominent role to play in that work.
Since 2016, over 100 students have received support from us, with 77 of those receiving a financial bursary during the course of their legal education. In 2024, we launched the Extended Scholars programme to provide our mentoring and career development opportunities to students we couldn’t provide a bursary to. There have been over 500 applications since the launch of the Foundation, with numbers growing year-on-year. Clearly, there is still an increased need for the support we offer, whether that be the bursary, a mentor from the legal profession or career development events that help students gain skills to benefit their future careers.
I’m so lucky in my role with the Foundation - in that I have the privilege of meeting every one of our scholars. I get to see first-hand the work of the charity and the impact it makes. I also get to see the passion and care from a whole range of champions, including our trustees, our sponsors, our mentors and our colleagues at the Law Society, all of whom give up their time to ensure the Lawscot Foundation can continue supporting students to access legal education and truly believe in this mission.
We often say in this sector that the main goal is for us to not have this job anymore; for there not to be a need for widening access or social mobility interventions; for us to reach a point where all talent is recognised and rewarded, and opportunities are truly equitable. I look forward to my future with the Lawscot Foundation and all the students I will get to meet - excited and nervous about embarking on their legal journeys, - all the friendly mentors who can’t wait to share their knowledge and hold the door open for the next generation of lawyers, and all the events at sponsor firms, surrounded by colleagues in the profession who see the importance of this work. And I will continue to encourage all of you who can to join me in the fight for a fair and equitable future. You can support the Foundation by volunteering as a mentor, asking your place of work to sponsor or choose us as your charitable partner, or simply by raising awareness and understanding the barriers to accessing legal education, and support us in breaking those down to make access fairer. So, when I say here’s to the next 10 years of the Lawscot Foundation, a part of me is hoping that maybe we won’t even need to get there. With your help, we might not.
This year we are celebrating a major milestone in our mission to support aspiring solicitors facing socioeconomic barriers, as 2026 marks our 10th anniversary!
Established by the Law Society of Scotland in May 2016 as part of its work to ensure fair access to the legal profession, we have now supported more than 100 students over the past decade.