New co-chairs Cat Greenwood-Smith and Molly Lewis talk to Forward Law Review as PRIME expands its work experience and school outreach programmes to mark its 15th anniversary.
Cat Greenwood-Smith, partner at Freshfields, and Molly Lewis, senior associate, have been appointed as executive co-chairs of PRIME, succeeding Elizabeth Robertson.
Founded in 2011, PRIME is an alliance of more than 60 UK law firms and other employers with internal legal functions committed to improving access to legal careers for young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds. The charity focuses primarily on secondary school students, seeking to intervene early to show that a legal career is attainable regardless of background.
“PRIME was established by bringing together law firms committed to improving access to the legal profession for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds,” said Lewis, who has been involved with the charity for six years.
“Since our inception, progress has been made on widening access to the profession, but challenges remain. The SRA reported last year that 21% of lawyers attended private school (this compares to 6% of pupils in England). Addressing these challenges requires a collective effort across the profession and PRIME plays an important role in facilitating this collaboration. The core commitment is that our member firms offer work experience to students who would otherwise be very unlikely to have access to those kinds of opportunities.”
The Sutton Trust’s 2025 research brief The Opportunity Index highlighted that Britain is a country in which where you grew up can have as much, if not more, impact than your family’s individual socioeconomic circumstances. So, alongside work experience, PRIME runs a school outreach programme in social mobility cold spots, working with state schools in areas where students are least likely to progress to higher education or professional careers. “We deliver careers insight workshops in schools where opportunity is particularly limited,” Lewis said. “These are sessions aimed at 12-14 year olds, asking a very simple question: why not law? The aim is to raise awareness of what a legal career might look like and for students to begin to believe that it is a viable one for them. They hear about the full range of roles within a law firm. It’s not just about being a lawyer – it’s everything from front of house to compliance to finance.”
The schools the sessions are delivered in must meet specific criteria, including higher-than-average levels of free school meal eligibility and lower-than-average progression to higher education. For work experience programmes, PRIME encourages members to assess students individually against a range of indicators such as first-generation university status, parental occupation, caring responsibilities and refugee background.
“It’s about sharing the experience with students who are least likely to get it otherwise,” Lewis said. “Many of our members take students who meet three or four of those criteria.”
Greenwood-Smith, a partner at Freshfields, said the charity’s model also offers value to firms, not just students.
“There’s a philosophy that drives PRIME that’s relevant to the students, but there’s also one that’s relevant to members,” she said. “For law firms, this isn’t just about doing the right thing. It genuinely creates a talent pipeline, and it increasingly creates opportunities to collaborate with clients, particularly in-house legal teams.”
PRIME currently includes three in-house members, Lloyds Banking Group, Aggreko and Shire Leasing, and expanding that part of the alliance is a priority for the new co-chairs.
“We’ve seen real success when in-house teams collaborate with law firms on PRIME programmes,” Greenwood-Smith said. “Now we’re thinking about how in-house teams can formalise their involvement and what PRIME itself can offer them directly.”
As executive co-chairs, Greenwood-Smith and Lewis are responsible for supporting PRIME’s board of trustees, drawn from law firms, in-house legal teams, education and social mobility organisations, and helping set the charity’s strategic direction.
“Our role is very much about taking a bird’s-eye view of where PRIME creates the most value and has the most impact” Greenwood-Smith said. “The charity is now 15 years old. It was one of the first social mobility organisations in the legal sector, but the world has changed a lot in that time. Some of the challenges are different now, and our job is to make sure PRIME evolves with them.”
Among the priorities for the next year are expanding membership outside London, increasing the number of schools reached through the cold spots programme, and developing new offerings for students at different ages.
“Last year we reached 40 schools, and we’d like to double that over the next three years,” Lewis said. “We’re also developing a specific programme for year 10 students, because we’d like to bridge the gap between our first careers insight session and when the students typically undertake PRIME work experience – usually year 12 or 13. The more touchpoints we can create over time, the more impact we can have.”
Both co-chairs said demand from students already exceeds supply.
“One thing that really surprised me when I got involved is just how oversubscribed the programmes are,” Greenwood-Smith said. “There’s no shortage of interest from students. Our strategy is all about creating more opportunities, because the appetite is already there. We need to help make sure that our profession is accessible to all of those who have the talent and desire to achieve it.”
Both Greenwood-Smith and Lewis said their motivation for volunteering was rooted in personal experience. Both were the first in their families to go to university and to enter the legal profession.
“I joined the PRIME board having been the beneficiary of social mobility programmes hosted by The Sutton Trust and Rare,” Lewis said. “The motivation is to drop the ladder back down – to make it easier for those who follow. It’s not enough for one firm to do the right thing. We need the profession as a whole to move forward.”
Greenwood-Smith described applying to study law with little guidance and a strong sense of not belonging.
“No-one in my family had ever thought about becoming a lawyer,” she said. “I was actually told at one point that law was ‘above our station’. I nearly talked myself out of opportunities because I didn’t feel I belonged in those spaces.”
She added: “That’s what PRIME helps with. It gives students the chance to get their foot in the door, literally, to see what a law firm looks like, and to realise it’s not as intimidating as it seems. That sense of belonging is crucial.”
For firms and in-house legal teams not yet involved, both co-chairs said PRIME offers a practical way to engage with access-to-law work experience without reinventing the wheel.
“This is an alliance of members facing the same challenges and sharing best practice,” Lewis said. “You benefit from 15 years of experience in facilitating legal work experience, and from being part of a community that genuinely cares about and is committed to addressing these issues.”
Greenwood-Smith added that hearing directly from students was often transformative for volunteers.
“Seeing the profession through our students’ eyes is incredibly uplifting,” she said. “It reminds you how fortunate we are – and how life-changing these opportunities can be.”
PRIME is due to celebrate its 15-year anniversary at Freshfields’ offices on 18 November 2026. Further developments are expected in the coming months as the new co-chairs set priorities for the charity’s next phase.
How to get involved with PRIME
Law firms and in-house legal teams interested in joining PRIME or learning more about its programmes can contact the charity via its website at primecommitment.co.uk or speak directly to the co-chairs:
- Cat Greenwood-Smith, partner, Freshfields (cat.greenwood-smith@freshfields.com)
- Molly Lewis, senior associate, Freshfields (molly.lewis@freshfields.com)