The legal and business services teams in international law firm Osborne Clarke’s Bristol office have welcomed a group of interns as part of a project aiming to increase the representation of Black people in professional services businesses.
The six-week placements have been organised under the #10000 Black Interns (10KBI) programme, with six interns in Bristol. 
Two legal interns are joining the corporate team, with three interns in the IT and Osborne Clarke Solutions teams, while HR will also host an intern.
Osborne Clarke’s London and Reading offices are also taking part in the scheme, meaning the firm will have 11 interns in total.
10KBI seeks to offer 2,000 internships each year for five consecutive years. The programme has partnered with firms from 24 different sectors to deliver paid work experience.
Each intern has dedicated buddies to help support their learning journey, while junior and senior mentors have also been selected to inspire them and provide guidance for how to develop their careers.
The mentors will maintain their relationship with the interns and plan monthly catch-up meetings throughout the programme and afterwards. 
Osborne Clarke head of inclusion and corporate responsibility Bola Gibson said: “We hope that this programme really inspires the participants and means that we can make some progress in growing the representation of Black people in Osborne Clarke and other professional services businesses.
“We are also providing all our legal and non-legal interns with recruitment and employability training, and our legal interns will spend a week gaining experience in the in-house team of one of our clients.”
Osborne Clarke graduate recruitment manager Zoe Reid said the programme presented a great opportunity to help the firm develop and broaden the talent pool it recruits from.
“We’re offering our legal interns that are in year three of their university courses the opportunity to undertake the assessment process and apply for a training contract with the firm,” she added.
For more information, visit #10000 Black Interns (10KBI) Programme
Pictured: Osborne Clarke’s Bristol office interns. From left: Haneefa Ayeni, Ashanti Okor, Nicole Poku, David Onoja and John Ujah
