A&O encourages social mobility in the legal community in India by collaborating with NLSIU on scholarships

The ‘Allen & Overy Scholarships’ will support two students in each of the B.A., LL.B (Hons) and LLB (Hons) programmes, while maintaining at least a 50:50 gender diversity ratio in the scholarship candidates.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is one of A&O’s global and regional strategic business priorities. A&O recognises that education plays a crucial role in social mobility, and believes it has an important part to play in raising aspirations and motivating young people, creating opportunities and promoting an inclusive culture. A&O is keen to support bright students from diverse backgrounds and to provide them with the right tools, confidence and insight to achieve academic excellence and take their first steps towards a career in law.

Pallavi Gopinath Aney, Partner and Joint Chair of A&O’s India Group said: “As with all aspects of inclusion, there is a long way to go. But as a firm, we intend to persevere in our global social mobility initiatives, helping to drive change within our business, our profession and ultimately, the wider society. We are very happy to partner with NLSIU to help make a difference.”

A&O sees these scholarships as an exciting opportunity to offer its support to the legal education of the selected students, whose career path and trajectory it will closely monitor.

Sheila Ahuja, Partner and Joint Chair of A&O’s India Group said: “We are delighted to be able to make a contribution to the future of these four students. We are looking forward to mentoring them and supporting their journey towards a career in law.”

Tackling inequality is a focus for A&O not only because it is the right thing to do – it is also because bringing together people with different life experiences and from different backgrounds is critical to running a relevant, successful and sustainable business. A&O has a number of initiatives, aimed at a local level, to improve social mobility across APAC. The Allen & Overy Scholarships at NLSIU have been created as a step towards making a difference in the legal sector in India.

Gautam Narasimhan, Joint Managing Partner, A&O Singapore added: “We are very excited to collaborate with NLSIU on this scholarship programme. A&O has been consistently impressed by the calibre of NLSIU’s students. Through this programme, we are excited to provide more students from different backgrounds the opportunity to dream and access quality legal education.”

This is A&O’s second social mobility initiative in India in the past year; in October 2021, A&O entered into a formal collaboration with Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (IDIA) to support their ongoing work by sponsoring internships for IDIA scholars in A&O’s Singapore office.