The 10,000 Black Interns Foundation provides paid work experience for Black undergraduate and recent-graduate talent. Its goal is to tackle barriers to professional careers by offering meaningful exposure to workplaces that students might not otherwise experience.

Access to such opportunities can be decisive in shaping career paths, helping students gain confidence, develop skills, and better understand professional environments.

Russell-Cooke supports the programme because we believe access matters as much as ability. Without structured opportunities, talented students from underrepresented backgrounds may miss out on experience, networks, and insight that are often prerequisites for professional roles.

Moriah Joseph-Brown, a penultimate-year law student who interned with us in August 2025, described her experience as transformative: “Nowadays a lot of industries want individuals who have experience, but most experiences are hard to come by unless someone is advocating for you.”

During her placement, Moriah worked across several departments, including litigation, family law, and trusts & estates. She highlighted how the supportive environment helped her explore new areas of law and clarify her career interests: “From day one I felt welcome and accepted… the partners’ offices are always open and inviting.”

Temi Ojengbede, graduating in Law and Criminology, also valued hands-on exposure during her internship with us in September 2025: “Seeing cases unfold in person made the work feel very real and showed me how much of an impact lawyers can have on people’s lives.”

Rotating across departments allowed Temi to consider areas she had not previously explored, such as private client work and children and family law. She emphasised that curiosity and willingness to learn were as important as technical knowledge: “You don’t need to know everything straight away to succeed… Law is as much about people as it is about rules and procedures.”

The experiences of Moriah and Temi illustrate why programmes like 10,000 Black Interns are crucial. They show that access to work experience can broaden horizons, build confidence, and support informed career choices. Structured, paid internships help to level the playing field, offering tangible opportunities for talented students to gain professional insight, skills, and networks that might otherwise be out of reach.

In supporting initiatives like this, organisations contribute to a more inclusive future, where career potential is shaped by talent and ambition, not by who has prior access to experience.

In a rapidly evolving legal environment, it is more important than ever that individuals, organisations and public bodies have access to clear, authoritative guidance on gender equality and the law. To meet this need, the firm launched its Gender Equality Law Hub, a specialist service which demonstrates our commitment to supporting access to justice by making legal expertise more accessible and usable.

We created this hub in response to the landmark decision in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers, a ruling of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom which clarified the meanings of “man”, “woman” and “sex” in the context of the Equality Act 2010, and generated widespread uncertainty about how organisations, schools, employers and service providers should respond.

The hub is designed to help a wide range of audiences, from service providers running single sex spaces, to employers reviewing inclusive policies, to charities and public sector bodies seeking clarity on how to meet legal obligations while respecting values and rights. Our aim is to help people and organisations understand how the judgment affects their legal rights and obligations, how to revise their policies and how to navigate difficult decisions around single sex spaces and trans inclusion.

To further help these audiences we have packaged our expertise into a public facing, accessible resource that addresses complexity in a practical way. Rather than simply offering litigation only advice, the hub provides tailored guidance, policy review support and risk management tools. It draws on our firm’s deeper experience - for example, our public law litigation team represented Amnesty International UK in the For Women Scotland case - meaning that the hub is grounded not just in theory but in high stakes legal practice.

This is important as access to justice is not only about the ability to go to court, but about the ability to understand, engage with and act upon legal rights and obligations. For many organisations and individuals, the ambiguity created by recent legal developments posed a barrier to informed decision making. By creating the hub, we aim to help lower that barrier: making legal expertise accessible, helping demystify complicated territory, and enabling users to move confidently from uncertainty to action.

This initiative demonstrates how a professional services firm can play a proactive role in translating law into usable guidance, especially in areas where change is fast and the stakes for equality, inclusion and fairness are high. By helping organisations and individuals to be legally compliant and ethically sound, the hub promotes a fairer, more transparent environment in which justice and equality are more within reach.

The Fundraising and Outreach Committee, previously the Trainee CSR Committee, recently received a fresh identity following the arrival of a new trainee cohort. The committee’s new name reflects its purpose clearly and directly, capturing both its fundraising and community engagement activities.

Membership is made up entirely of trainees, with numbers varying each year depending on interest. This year, eight trainees make up the team. The committee thrives on collaboration, with second-year trainees stepping into leadership roles to share their experience, while everyone pitches in with ideas and initiatives. Leadership rotates across events, keeping things fresh and giving every member a chance to take the reins.

The committee follows a calendar of annual events, meeting monthly to plan and coordinate. Traditional activities include the Macmillan Coffee Morning, the Kingston Gift Appeal, and the London Legal Walk, while more recently the committee has organised initiatives such as a Clothes Drive in partnership with TRAID and Smartworks. Proposals for new initiatives are drafted collaboratively, often including rationale for alignment with the firm’s values, before being shared with the wider firm-level committee.

Beyond the year’s milestone events, the committee is experimenting with ways to tie activities to trainee awareness days and wider initiatives, keeping the firm engaged year-round. Leadership is shared across events: one trainee might take the lead on the Coffee Morning while others handle communications and logistics. This keeps responsibilities manageable while giving everyone a chance to contribute meaningfully.

The committee plays a key role in demonstrating the firm’s commitment to community involvement, offering more than traditional legal work and providing a rewarding way to contribute locally. Activities such as Smartworks illustrate this impact: supporting individuals in preparing for job interviews by providing professional clothing directly connects community engagement with real-world outcomes.

At its core, the Fundraising and Outreach Committee reflects the firm’s values, balancing professional excellence with social responsibility. It offers trainees a meaningful avenue to engage with the local community, reinforcing that the firm is more than a legal service provider and anchoring the firm’s presence in London while making a tangible difference beyond the office.

We are committed to reducing our environmental footprint, which includes promoting sustainable commuting options. One of the most successful initiatives supporting this goal is our Cycle to Work scheme, administered through Cyclescheme.

In 2025, we sought to further enhance numbers of staff commuting or choosing to travel by bicycle through a collaboration with bike servicing company Fettle Bike Repair, and by reinvigorating the Russell-Cooke Cycling Club. Together, these programmes encourage staff to adopt cycling as a regular, practical, and eco-friendly mode of transport.

The Cycle to Work scheme provides employees with a tax-efficient way to purchase bicycles and safety equipment, typically offering savings of up to 50%. Staff are eligible to choose from a wide range of bikes (from traditional and folding bicycles to electric models) through Cyclescheme’s approved retailers. The scheme operates via a salary sacrifice arrangement over a 12-month period, after which Cyclescheme offers further options for ownership at minimal additional cost. Importantly, while the scheme is intended primarily for commuting, bikes can also be used for personal trips, helping staff to reduce their overall carbon footprint while supporting overall fitness and wellbeing.

The uptake at Russell-Cooke has been significant. Since introducing the scheme, a growing number of employees have embraced cycling, leading to measurable reductions in car journeys and associated carbon emissions. Encouraging staff to choose active travel not only aligns with our environmental strategy but also promotes physical health, improves mental wellbeing, and contributes to reduced congestion in the local area around our various office locations.

To further support our cyclists, the Russell-Cooke Environmental Group partnered with Fettle, a trusted bike servicing company with a workshop in Putney, to provide on-site maintenance and tune-ups at our offices. This initiative allowed employees to have their bikes professionally checked by Fettle free of charge with offers for discounted follow-up repairs and maintenance at their workshop. Such events are designed to ensure that staff can enjoy safe, reliable bicycles while encouraging maximum participation. Following the success of these sessions at our Putney office, we are exploring similar opportunities for our Kingston and Bedford Row offices. Our events with Fettle were timed to coincide with the summer months and national events such as Cycle to Work Day in August, helping staff take advantage of favourable weather for commuting.

Additionally, the Russell-Cooke Cycling Club offers staff with an existing passion for cycling, and those who are looking to grow their confidence the opportunity to meet regularly for a safe and sociable group ride. In 2025 we introduced branded cycle tops for staff, fostering a sense of community and visibility while promoting cycling as a practical and stylish commuting option.

The benefits of these programmes extend beyond the environmental, individual health and convenience. By encouraging staff to cycle regularly, we are actively reducing our organisational carbon footprint, supporting cleaner air, and contributing to broader climate action goals. Cycling also strengthens our connection to the local community and urban environment, highlighting the role of workplace initiatives in promoting sustainable, low-impact commuting.

Russell-Cooke’s Cycle to Work scheme and collaboration with Fettle exemplify the integration of practical sustainability measures with staff wellbeing. The significant uptake of the scheme demonstrates both enthusiasm and commitment from employees, while the provision of expert maintenance support ensures that cycling remains a viable, safe, and enjoyable choice. By facilitating active travel, we are not only supporting our staff but also taking tangible steps toward a greener, healthier, and more sustainable future.

In summary, these initiatives show how workplace policies can encourage environmentally responsible behaviour, reduce emissions, and enhance staff wellbeing, all while fostering a culture of sustainability throughout the organization.