Slaughter and May, Clifford Chance and Herbert Smith Freehills are among 10 law firms aiming to help increase law firm applications from students at disadvantaged schools.

The group, which also includes Linklaters and Travers Smith, has pledged to support graduate recruitment company Rare as it seeks to double the number of applicants to top firms from 100 schools that talented students rarely apply from.

Rare has launched a web portal, Vantage, which uses analytics to match firms with talented pupils at low-participation schools.

Vantage allows firms to see candidates' achievements on the portal within the context of how they gained those achievements, taking into consideration aspects of their background including postcode, school quality, eligibility for free school meals, refugee status, and any time spent in care.

Rare is targeting the U.K.'s 100 "high-low schools" – where Rare says only one in 40 students achieving an A grade at English A-level goes on to apply to the legal profession – aiming to double the applicants from that pool within three years.

Rare said that at elite schools, one in three eventually applies to be a lawyer, 12 times the rate of "high-low" schools.

Other firms that have signed up as founding members of the portal include Eversheds Sutherland, Hogan Lovells, Macfarlanes, Pinsent Masons and Baker McKenzie.

Linklaters partner Alison Wilson added in a statement: "Being an online solution, [Vantage] is not bound by geography and reaches an untapped pool of students – many of whom may not have considered or been aware of us in the past.

"This, coupled with the tool's robust and meaningful diversity and social mobility metrics, will enable us to offer help, resources and encouragement to those who need it most."