Making
it in Law

www.legalweek.com reports on a new survey about who makes it in the legal world

ETHNIC MINORITY and female students are still struggling to make their way into the UK’s top law firms, comprehensive new research has found, despite attempts by commercial practices to tackle diversity.

The annual Legal Week Intelligence Law Student Survey has found that while 25% of Legal Practice Course (LPC) students are from ethnic minorities, just 18% of training contracts are being taken by those from ethnic minority backgrounds, reports Paul Hodkinson on www.legalweek.com

The research also suggests that the success of candidates from UK-based ethnic minorities may be even worse as increasing numbers of commercial firms’ ethnic minority lawyers are recruited from India, China and Southeast Asia.

The results will make grim reading for the UK’s top law practices coming in the same week as firms including DLA Piper, Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance and Lovells have signed up to schemes by the Black Lawyers Directory to help teach and train school and university students from ethnic minorities.

In addition, the report found students overwhelmingly cite magic circle law firms as the most prestigious to work for and as the employers offering the best career prospects in law. However, the most important single influence on a graduate’s choice of firm is the experience gained through taking part in a placement scheme, closely followed by the experiences of friends already at a firm.”

The report by Legal Week’s research arm, Legal Week Intelligence, surveyed 2,422 law students studying at Russell Group universities and 390 students studying for the Graduate Diploma in Law.

The research also underlines apparent gender bias in the profession, with male students more likely to have already secured training contracts than female counterparts. While 18.4% of males have already been offered training contracts, for females the corresponding figure drops to 13%.

However, the survey found that females hoping to enter the profession do so with the intention of becoming partners. A broadly equal number of male and female law students (59.7% and 61.8% respectively) said they want to make partner. This falls dramatically among qualified lawyers — only 40% of females aspire to partnership, compared with 65% of males.

The survey also revealed the proportion of law students who are considering careers in either investment banking or the civil service has fallen since last year’s survey and the number of students whose sole aim it is to become a lawyer has risen in the same period.

In addition, the report found students overwhelmingly cite magic circle law firms as the most prestigious to work for and as the employers offering the best career prospects in law. However, the most important single influence on a graduate’s choice of firm is the experience gained through taking part in a placement scheme, closely followed by the experiences of friends already at a firm.

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