Member Article

Legal eagle returns to his Ashington roots and inspires a new generation

Adam Smith, a former student at Ashington High School and trainee solicitor with international law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has teamed-up with his old secondary school to inspire the legal eagles of tomorrow through a new business and education partnership.

The Norton Rose Fulbright ‘Impress Initiative’ is the brainchild of Smith, who grew up in Ashington and studied Law at Durham University.

The scheme aims to raise aspirations of secondary school students aged 13-15 within the Ashington Learning Partnership to equip them with the skills, knowledge and experience to help them reach their full potential when they leave school.

The eighteen month programme is heavily backed by Durham University Law School through outreach seminars and lectures. Students’ learn about legal careers, life as a lawyer and experience what it’s like to study at a word-class university through a residential weekend at Durham University’s Collingwood College.

Describing his motivation behind the initiative, Adam Smith, said: “I wanted to use my own experience of studying at Durham University and moving to the City to work for a leading legal firm to inspire more youngsters from my neck of the woods.

“All the big London law firms typically work with London schools so I wanted to address that inequality for school children in the North East of England. We have lots of talented kids in the region with bags of potential and we should encourage them to aim high. “

Participants are put through their paces in a range of legal negotiation exercises and learn about life as a law student. Some of the programme’s top performers also have the opportunity to spend a day at Norton Rose Fulbright’s London offices.

Ashington High School is part of the Ashington Learning Partnership Trust, a collaboration of five schools which includes Bothal Middle School, Hirst Park Middle School, Central First School and Wansbeck First School. The Trust has a strong track record of working with business and industry on experiential projects that allow learners to develop a wide ranging skills set.

Rob Kitching, principal, at Ashington High School, said: “The Impress Initiative is unique as it’s the first scheme to link-up North East Schools and a North East University to offer an experiential insight into a professional career and higher education.

“It’s been enthusiastically embraced by our students and we would like to extend our sincere thanks to Adam Smith, Norton Rose Fulbright and Durham University. Together we are showing our students they can do anything they set their minds to and broadening their horizons in relation to the legal profession and higher education.

“I’m sure that in time, Durham University will receive UCAS applications from the Impress Initiative cohort as a result of student participation in the programme.”

Budding lawyer and year 9 student, Rosie Wake age 13, said: “Every time we have a day on the Impress Initiative, we have the chance to meet up with Norton Rose Fulbright and Durham University representatives. They travel up from London and Durham each time so that they can work with us and that means a lot to us all at Ashington High School.”

Director of admissions at Durham Law School, Professor Jonathan Doak, said: “We are always delighted to work with Norton Rose Fulbright and welcome aspiring lawyers in the region to come and visit us. Whilst application to university may be a few years away for these kids, our view is that it is never too early to encourage teenagers to think about their future education and career plans. “

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Amy Maughan, Contributor .