With the help of volunteers from both inside and outside of the legal profession, we run mock trial workshops. The mock trials give students an opportunity to practise public speaking, negotiating, debating, critical thinking and presenting.
Lawyers4Learners is a social mobility charity providing public speaking workshops in deprived and disadvantaged schools in London.
In the communities we serve students often face multiple barriers to education. 51% of children qualify for free school meals. 55% of children have English as an additional language. Sometimes up to half the class have some kind of Special Educational Need.
For children facing socio-economic disadvantages, opportunities to practise public speaking are often rare. Without these ‘soft skills’ children enter secondary education and employment ill equipped for success.
With the help of volunteers from both inside and outside of the legal profession, we run mock trial workshops. The mock trials give students an opportunity to practise public speaking, negotiating, debating, critical thinking and presenting.
Our Story
Lawyers4Learners was founded by Barrister Caley Wright and School Governor Louise Jones, who shared a concern: public speaking—a vital life skill—is often overlooked or inconsistently taught in state schools. In some cases, it’s not taught at all.
Caley and Louise saw an opportunity. They realised that lawyers, skilled in oracy, argument, and persuasion, could play a valuable role in bridging this gap. With the help of teachers and head teachers they came up with the idea that through mock trials the children would have a way of practising all these skills. Also it wasn’t just lawyers who could help - as these ‘soft skills’ are used across many professions we welcomed volunteers from many other careers adding to the enrichment for pupils.
What started as some pilot workshops in two schools in Hammersmith & Fulham has now spread across London and beyond. Thousands of children have been encouraged to find their voice through our workshops. Each term we increase our reach to more schools and help more children to grow in confidence through the power of public speaking.