A Firm Decision: The Recruitment of Trainee Solicitors

This report shows that law firms favour graduates from old universities when recruiting trainee solicitors and that this may explain disadvantage among applicants from ethnic minorities and lower social classes in gaining a training contract. Not only do firms select applicants for interview according to which university they attend, but target their recruitment activities at favoured old universities, particularly Oxford and Cambridge. One reason given for this is the image of the firm among clients. The report concludes that young people from privileged social class backgrounds, and particularly those with a relative in the profession, benefit from greater access to information about careers in law and practical experience at all stages, and that this is compounded by the closer contact between law firms and their favoured universities.

Published by The Law Society.

Copies of the report can be ordered from The Law Society who commissioned and funded the research (tel: 0207 320 5640 or e-mail <a href="mailto:Tara.Chittenden@lawsociety.org.uk">Tara Chittenden</a> at The Law Society Business Centre, 113 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1Pl). View accompanying press release.

<a href="pdflaw.pdf">View paper</a> by Heather Rolfe and Tracy Anderson, drawing on findings from this research.