Single mum Funke Abimbola, 41, from St Albans, has been shortlisted for a national award because of her parenting skills.

Funke is in the running to beome the Tesco 2015 Mum of the Year after she was picked for the shortlist from from thousands of nominations sent in from throughout the UK.

As a single mother, Funke juggles looking after her 11-year-old son and working as the most senior black lawyer in the UK pharmaceutical industry.

She is a solicitor leading the UK & Ireland legal team of the world’s largest biotech company and she has made it her mission to promote diversity within the legal profession.

She mentors, sponsors and supports female solicitors and solicitors from a black and minority ethnic background and has led her team to be shortlisted for three major legal awards.

Funke is a regular speaker about diversity and legal issues at conferences in the UK and has been invited to overseas conferences because of her expertise.

She has received widespread recognition for her legal work with a number of recent award wins and nominations, including being the only woman solicitor nominated for the Most Innovative European in-house lawyer award at the 2014 Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing though, as Funke has had to overcome obstacles. When looking to enter the legal profession 15 years ago, she was told to be less ambitious and to steer clear of corporate law practice, and was told this was "too competitive for a black woman".

Funke was passionate about becoming a business lawyer and cold-¬called the corporate department heads at the top 100 UK law firms and the heads of various in-house legal departments, securing a number of interviews and entry-level job offers in the process.

It is this determination that helps her to push for more diversity within the legal profession as an active member of the Black Solicitors’ Network, the Association of Women Solicitors and the Women Lawyers’ Division of the Law Society.

Her diversity efforts were recognised recently when she was a finalist for diversity champion of the year, at the 2014 European Diversity Awards.

She has served as governor at Uxbridge College, is currently a governor at Sandridge School, St Albans. She has also been a board director of City Growth Luton, an economic regeneration project.

All shortlisted mums will be considered by the judging panel, which includes DJ Sara Cox, TV personality Gabby Logan and sports presenter Denise Lewis. The winners will be announced early next year.