More than 2,350 students from 208 universities have enrolled in Linklaters' new digital internship since its launch last month.

Developed in collaboration with online education provider Inside Sherpa, the platform – which goes live today (July 17) – attracted more than 1,000 registrations within the first 24 hours of its launch, according to the firm.

The firm said that top universities for participation include Warwick, Essex and Leicester, and that 35% of registrations were made by students from non-law degrees.

Linklaters graduate recruitment partner Fionnghuala Griggs told Legal Week that the firm hoped the new scheme would improve access to the profession, especially for students outside of London and traditional university routes, as well as "demystifying jargon" related to the industry.

The firm hopes the scheme will improve the diversity and number of people applying for vacation schemes at the firm, as well as its peers. Currently, Linklaters takes on about 75 students in its summer vacation cohort and about 150 across the year.

The course, which the firm said will take about seven hours to complete, aims to simulate the experience of working in a major law firm.

It consists of seven tasks designed to simulate the work done on vacation schemes, including a module on e-signatures and contracts and one on the use of AI in law.

Linklaters digital internship business development module, featuring partner Sushil Jacob

Other tasks include creating a pitch presentation for new business, finding specialist support to assist with the drafting of a dispute resolution clause, and leaving a voicemail to a client explaining how to complete post-completion tasks.

The internship follows other recent efforts by Linklaters to promote social mobility. In April, the firm awarded more than £50,000 in prizes to the winners of its 'Making Links' competition, which asked state school students to answer a question about innovation, with an essay or short presentation. More than 440 applications were submitted.