Diversity campaign group Aspiring Solicitors has signed up four new member firms, adding Travers Smith, Mayer Brown, Kirkland and Ellis and Chadbourne & Parke to its roster of firms committed to increasing access to the legal profession.

Launched in September last year, the group initially featured 10 founding members, including Norton Rose Fulbright, Clyde & Co, Dentons, Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co and Atwells. With the addition of the new members, a total of 16 organisations are now on board.

The list of members is likely to swell further, with another 12 law firms and four in-house teams in talks over joining Aspiring Solicitors. The scheme picked up the Diversity Initiative of the Year award at the British Legal Awards last month.

In order to become members, firms must sign a commitment to work with Aspiring Solicitors to provide increased access, opportunity and assistance to students from underrepresented groups at undergraduate, post graduate and graduate levels.

"The understanding that we need a cross sectional approach to diversity is key," said Chris White (pictured), the former Norton Rose associate who founded Aspiring Solicitors. "It's not just about gender, disability or ethnicity, it's about working across the piece. I think that's what set us apart from other organisations out there."

In just over a year, Aspiring Solicitors has also more than doubled the number of universities at which it has representatives, from an original 42 to 97. The representatives are on campus to promote each of the scheme's four areas of focus: pro-bono; commercial awareness; employability; and academics.

Financial support has come from the founding members, providing free academic and careers advice. To target candidates usually underrepresented by the profession, Aspiring Solicitors also asks members to hold open days for universities outside of those from which top firms tend to recruit graduates.

In March, the group helped set up an agreement between Barclays' in-house team and the firms on its legal panel to offer 80 work experience places to undergraduates interested in a career in law, 50 of which were made available to Aspiring Solicitors members, with others going to students working with the Sutton Trust and the Black Lawyers Directory.