Lawyer 2B shows A-level students the way
Most law firms say they want to attract more diverse bodies of trainees from outside the traditional talent pools, but the majority of diversity programmes still focus primarily on attracting university students.
The problem with this is that by the time firms come into contact with university students, a raft of potentially promising future lawyers will already have been cut out of the equation.
Which is where The Lawyer’s sister magazine Lawyer 2B comes in. For the second year running the publication organised a careers day for first-year A-level students taking part in the Government’s ‘Gifted and Talented’ programme, which encourages bright youngsters to apply for university through a series of workshops and mentoring schemes.
Top law firms, including Freshfields?Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters, were on hand to guide the students through a range of topics, including the structure of the legal profession and how to make successful applications.
Simmons & Simmons graduate recruitment adviser Sophie Binney, who gave a presentation at the event on how the City works, said it was important to arm promising students with the knowledge they needed to enter the profession before they apply for university.
“We’re very keen to make sure that we get the right graduates into the firm from a diverse background,” she said. “We want people from different socioeconomic backgrounds and it’s great to get involved with students this early on to make sure they start paying attention to their grades now.”
More than 300 students descended on Kaplan Law School over two days from 2 March to make sure that law was for them and to see if they too could follow in the footsteps of Barack Obama. (Sixty-eight per cent of the students said they aspired to be like the new US president, with only 6 per cent admitting they would most like to be Elle Woods from the film Legally Blonde.)
Student Marjan Jafari from Harrow College in Middlesex said the day gave her a great insight into what being a lawyer involved and what steps she needed to take to gain a training contract in the future.
“Students from wealthier backgrounds are more likely to succeed in their dreams of becoming a lawyer, but something like this gives us the information to compete with them,” said the 18-year-old.
Leslie Wilson, an A-level law teacher at Harrow College who took some of his class to the event, confirmed that many A-level students were unaware that what they were doing now would impact on their futures.
“This event allows firms to say, ‘This is how you can get through to working for us’, and that gives hope to the students,” he said. “Out there the general impression is that it’s an impossible field to succeed in, but something like this gives them real hope.”
Out of the students who attended the event, only 43 per cent said their parents had gone to university, so for many the world of higher education is an unknown quantity.
Couple this with the fact that getting a training contract depends on good A-level grades, an excellent degree and a CV bulging with pro bono work and vacation scheme placements, and some students just do not stand a chance.
Many of the youngsters at the event were about to start applying to universities to study law, without realising they could convert a non-law degree with a Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL).
Seventeen-year-old Danielle Nash from St Charles Sixth Form College in West London said: “I was surprised to find out that you don’t need to study law to become a lawyer. It’s better because if you don’t actually want to study law you can study something that you enjoy and then get a really good grade.”
Of the students surveyed, 42 per cent said they were planning to apply to Oxbridge because they perceived it as a surefire way to secure a training contract.
Daniel Harris from Harrow College said: “I always thought that you had to go to Oxford or Cambridge to become a lawyer, but the law firms explained to us that you can go to a normal university and, as long as you do well, you can then go on to become a lawyer.”
Seventeen-year-old Alhasan Awad from St Charles College summed the event up perfectly.
“I was in the dark before because I didn’t know what route to take,” he said. “But now you realise how easy it could be if you just put in the effort.”
Other firms that took part in the event this year were Addleshaw Goddard, Bircham Dyson Bell, Clyde & Co, CMS Cameron McKenna. Hammonds, Mayer Brown and Norton Rose.
Why the Lawyer 2B careers day was needed
Husnara Begum, editor, Lawyer 2B
There is no denying that law firm graduate recruitment teams are taking diversity more seriously than ever before. Indeed, there appears to be no shortage of initiatives designed to help students from so-called ‘non-traditional backgrounds’ enter the profession.
The problem with many of these schemes, however, is that they are aimed at students who are already at university. For some state school students, this could be a case of too little, too late.
That is why it is crucial for aspiring lawyers to have access to specialist careers advice before they apply to university. In recognition of this, in September 2005 The Lawyer and Lawyer 2B launched an annual careers guide aimed at A-level students.
To supplement this, last year we also launched a careers day for around 200
Year-12 A-level students. Due to its success we decided to run another event this year,with Kaplan Law School hosting.
The careers day is designed to be both inspirational and aspirational. We want students who think a career in law is beyond their reach to walk away more determined. But we also want them to recognise the importance of securing stellar academic results and gaining work experience before starting university.
Although it should not be the case, which university a student attends continues to play a crucial role in determining whether they are able to enter the legal profession.
The careers day is open to all ‘Gifted and Talented’ Year 12 A-level students attending state schools and sixth-form colleges in Central and Greater London.
After much internal debate, we decided against inviting only ethnic minority students, because in our view diversity also encompasses class.
View results 10 per page | 20 per page | 50 per page
Readers' comments (31)
BlatantAbuse | 9-Mar-2009 2:32 pm
-
"Seventeen-year-old Danielle Nash from St Charles Sixth Form College in West London said: “I was surprised to find out that you don’t need to study law to become a lawyer. It’s better because if you don’t actually want to study law you can study something that you enjoy and then get a really good grade.”"
In other words you can study something easy, probably golf course management, to get a first or two one then take a pathetically easy conversion course (no doubt funded by a law firm that thinks having someone with a degree in knitting will show their diversity) and become a lawyer, overstepping people who studied law.
And if you want to study something 'you enjoy' instead of law, hence suggesting you don't enjoy law, then why should you want to be a lawyer?
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Stuart | 9-Mar-2009 4:19 pm
Re Blatant Abuse
Firstly, you show your ignorance by assuming that studying law at degree level in some way prepares you to become a lawyer. Comparing the academic study of law at degree level and practising law as a professional is like saying being able to write prepares you for a career as a journalist. Academic study and the practical professional experience are two totally different things.
In addition even if you did Golf Course Management and then managed somehow to pass the CPE, trust me you will have earned your right to go on and study the LPC or BVC as its an horrendous exam, I should know I took it and I am now a solicitor.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
HTG | 9-Mar-2009 5:15 pm
BlatantAbuse
I found the academic study of law tedious, but thoroughly enjoy being a lawyer in practice. I know many who feel the same. With the benefit of hindsight, I would probably read modern languages or PPE and convert, though I'll grant that Knitting has it advantages...
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
hellokitty | 10-Mar-2009 10:06 am
GDL v LLB
I have to say that I agree with blantant abuse. Tis a tad ridiculous that somebody who wants to supposedly do law would rather do something more enjoyable first. I think anybosy who is actually committed to law would first of all do a law degree. And yes, although an academic law degree is not the same as practice, doing one is harder and more challenging that the GDL. I have an LL.B but I am currently doing land law on the GDL as I studied in N.Ireland and need the english land law as our law is too different. Quite honestly, the GDL does not come close to an LL.B. It lacks detail and is more a general synopsis than an in depth study. Anybody who really wants to do law, will do an LL.B at 18. To succeed at law, you need to be committed and dedicated, and I would kind of doubt how committed GDL types actually are. Seems they realize that that their classics, english degree can't actually get them anywhere, so decide to take shelter under law and bypass those who have done a law degree
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
hellokitty | 10-Mar-2009 10:14 am
RE: Stuart
And Stuart, are you seriously trying to make out that the GDL exmas are worse that than those for an LLB?????????????? Come on, you have far less to get onto the LPC than those with an LLB. I am sure you are an excellent solicitor, but the GDL is easy and would not have challenged you as much as an LLB.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 10-Mar-2009 4:01 pm
Choosing careers at 18
Unfortunate comment by Danielle, but demonstrates the naivety of people at that age. What about the many people who don't know what they want to do for a career at age 18, and make the choice to become a lawyer later, after having done a more general degree? Does that mean they are a worse lawyer?
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 10-Mar-2009 4:09 pm
GDL v LLB
Valid as the arguments on here are, unless you have done both the GDL and LLB there will always be an element of snobbery and no one will ever be able to compare the two objectively.
However as someone who did the GDL after qualifying in another profession (surveying) and am now a successful construction lawyer one could argue that 'other routes' into law create more rounded and commercial lawyers.
Even if the GDL is supposedly an 'easier' route into law, Blatant Abuse's argument that I did 'an easy degree' and then a 'pathetically easy conversion course' is quite simply talking rubbish. Try working, raising a child and completing the GDL to Distinction standard - not easy by any means. Does the client or the senior partner ever ask if you have an LLB or GDL as long as you provide a top service - getting the law right is expected of ALL lawyers - it's what else you bring to the job that distinguishes the top lawyers.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 10-Mar-2009 4:09 pm
Now Oxbridge need to reach out
Daniel Harris from Harrow College said: “I always thought that you had to go to Oxford or Cambridge to become a lawyer, but the law firms explained to us that you can go to a normal university and, as long as you do well, you can then go on to become a lawyer.”
Based on Daniel Harris from Harrow's comment, it sounds like Oxford and Cambridge now need to reach out to show that they are "normal" universities. If these are gifted and talented state educated pupils - isn't this the demographic which Oxford and Cambridge are seeking to attract?
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 10-Mar-2009 4:11 pm
Get real
I went to Harrow College and did law there and went on to do a law degree. 6 years after leaving with decent A-levels (and 2 years after getting a 2:1), I still have no training contract. My advice to these kids is, get real.
Going to Oxbridge it is an automatic route to a training contract and I can tell you how hard it is trying to get good grades when there are 30 people in you’re a-level law class – almost impossible. The recruiters shouldn't be telling people that they want a diverse socio-economic intake when there's no way of telling someone's background from the application form and really, they don't want it, they just have to say it.
At the firm I work in now, there is not one trainee in my department who didn’t go to private school and I'm the only paralegal who went to a state school. Maybe someone should be telling them those facts to save them the bother.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Associate | 10-Mar-2009 4:14 pm
Re: previous posts
What a lot of nonsense. I could not agree more with Danielle's comments - why study law for three years when it bears absolutely no resemblance to the work you'll do as a lawyer?
If you are interested in a different area why not study that, simply to become better educated - after all, that is the purpose of a university education.
I took the PGDL, so must declare an interest - but far from studying golf course management I studied biochmistry at a top 10 rusell group university. I spent many long hours researching, reporting, writing essays, attending lectures and seminars, carrying out my own research - all of which skills have stood me in very good stead as a commercial lawyer of 7 years PQE.
Of course a degree in leisure and tourism won't ever compare to a more academic discipline - but no-one is claiming that. And HR teams are sophisticated enough to rank a 1st in whatever honours school from a 'new uni' in a very different category from a 2:2 from Oxbridge.
And in applying for a training contract no-one oversteps another, because no-one is entitled to a job anywhere. If you're a good candidate from a good uni you'll get a TC, whatever subject you studied and whatever classification you achieved.
Speaking as one now involved in recruitment and assessment of candidates for TCs, it is by and large the students with the PGDL who stand out, partly because they've been motivated enough to swim against the tide of their honours school, instead of simply plodding along the treadmill of law. HelloKitty - not sure it is fair to compare LLB and PGDL exams, after all PGDL is simply a crammer of the key elements. But remember that each entrant to the PGDL has already completed an undergraduate degree themselves, no less challenging and in many cases far more challenging than an LLB, so is no less qualified or equipped to take the LPC.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment