This article was downloaded by: [University of Western Australia] On: 13 November 2011, At: 20:38 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK The Law Teacher Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ralt20 Desiderata: What lawyers want from their recruits Vera Bermingham a & John Hodgson b a Nottingham Law School b Kingston University Available online: 09 Sep 2010 To cite this article: Vera Bermingham & John Hodgson (2001): Desiderata: What lawyers want from their recruits, The Law Teacher, 35:1, 1-32 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2001.9993071 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
Transcript
This article was downloaded by: [University of Western Australia]On: 13 November 2011, At: 20:38Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House,37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
The Law TeacherPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ralt20
Desiderata: What lawyers want from their recruitsVera Bermingham a & John Hodgson ba Nottingham Law Schoolb Kingston University
Available online: 09 Sep 2010
To cite this article: Vera Bermingham & John Hodgson (2001): Desiderata: What lawyers want from their recruits, The LawTeacher, 35:1, 1-32
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2001.9993071
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE
Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematicreproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form toanyone is expressly forbidden.
The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contentswill be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses shouldbe independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims,proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly inconnection with or arising out of the use of this material.
THE DEBATE about the skills and qualities which different groups ofrecruits bring into the legal profession and, in particular, what makesgraduates of the Common Professional Examination/Postgraduate Diplomain Law apparently more attractive to employers than Law graduates hasbeen taking place since the early 1990s. Although the issue has been lookedat from a number of different perspectives, there is an absence of clearinformation about employers' perceptions of the skills and qualities whichthe different groups possess. Consequently, the central aim of this researchwas to obtain information concerning how various qualifications, skills andattributes are valued by employers and to examine the factors which affectpatterns of entry to the legal profession. In addition, because of the on-going scrutiny of the employment position of women and minority ethnicgroups in the legal profession, the research also seeks to determine if therhetoric of addressing under-representation and discrimination are beingreflected in recruitment decisions.
The Context of the Research
One of the central questions to be addressed in examining the skills andqualities which different groups of recruits bring into the legal profession iswhy graduates of the Common Professional Examination/PostgraduateDiploma in Law are apparently more attractive to employers than Lawgraduates. There appears to be a widely held belief by both barristers andsolicitors that non-law graduates have something extra to offer whenentering the profession.1 Figures published in 1993 showed that in the topone hundred law firms, over 30% of training places went to non-lawgraduates. In thirty of the top one hundred firms more than 50% of theseplaces went to non-law graduates and in sixty-six of the top firms morethan 30% non-law graduates were recruited.2 Figures from the Inns of
* John Hodgson, Nottingham Law School and Vera Bermingham, Kingston University. Theviews expressed in this article are personal views and do not represent the official views orpolicies of the Nottingham Trent University.
1 Clare Deansley, a recruitment partner with Gouldens, taking issue with the claim by ProfessorBirks (see footnote 7), points out that today's solicitor has to have not just technical legalskills. She gives an example of two recruits to her firm with psychology degrees and notesthat both are very good with people and great business developers. The Times, 28 September1993.
2 The Lawyer, 11 May 1993, 15-17
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Court School of Law for the same period showed a similar situation to existat the Bar where non-law graduates took more than one third of its places.3
Although recruitment of non-law graduates at this level appears to havedeclined,4 a notable bias in favour of applicants who have taken a CPErather than a law degree continues to exist.5
The argument that, as a basic requirement, a lawyer must have a lawdegree has been made by Professor Birks who expresses grave concernsabout the bias in favour of CPE/PGDL applicants. He notes that non-lawgraduates take a conversion course in law, which in most cases iscompleted in a year, and as the result of this he warns of the danger of anunderqualified profession being unable to match competition fromGermany and elsewhere.6 In recruiting such high proportions of non-lawgraduates into the legal profession Professor Birks points to the injusticeand waste involved when graduates who have studied law for three yearsare "shouldered out of the profession by the non-lawyers".7 Moreover,mindful of the resource implications for law schools "if the professionspersist in regarding them as unnecessary"8 he says that university lawschools will have less and less muscle and the analogy with medicalschools will collapse. He believes that deciding "to treat lawyers asrequiring no more knowledge than estate agents" will lead to a decline inthe status and reputation of lawyers.
On the score of social justice in the matter of access to the profession,Professor Birks acknowledges that admission to undergraduate legaleducation may not in every respect be beyond criticism, but he believes itto be more open and fair than the "inscrutable processes by which non-lawyers find a foothold on a career in the law." He asks if those, successfulat the school leaving stage, are now being squeezed out of the professionby those who could not or did not compete for a law school place. Hestates that: "Up to the degree of LLB there is something like equality ofopportunity. The unfunded conversion year is a suspect filter. The suspicionis serious enough to warrant the most careful investigation." This particularconcern is reinforced by the findings of the Law Society LongitudinalSurvey where, even when other factors (including academic performance)
3 Professor Birks noted in 1993 that the recruitment of such a large proportion of non-lawgraduates was taking place at a time when, quite differently from the late 1980s, there was nounder-supply of law graduates. P. Birks, The Rise and Rise of the Non-Law Graduate, SPTLReporter, No. 7, Winter 1993.
4 By late 1991 the mood was changing and it was reported that several of the top one hundredfirms were no longer taking non-law applicants. Clare Deansley, The Times, 28 September 1993.
5 M. Shiner & T. Newburn, Entry into the Legal Profession: The Law Student Cohort Study, Year 5,London: The Law Society, 1999.
6 The Times, 14 September 1993.7 P. Birks, The Rise and Rise of the Non-Law Graduate, SPTL Reporter, No. 7, Winter 1993.8 However, Clare Deansley notes that contact between law firms and law faculties has increased
in recent years and in addition to library donations, there is the endowment by law firms ofvarious legal professional chairs. In addition, academics provide consultancy services to lawfirms and universities are using practising solicitors to advise on some of the practical aspectsof the legal practice course. The Times, 28 September 1993.
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had been taken into account, having taken the CPE rather than a lawdegree was associated with an increased chance of obtaining a trainingcontract. The Law Society survey showed that ethnic minority law students,and those from less privileged social class backgrounds, were concentratedamong those who took the law degree route through the academic stage oflegal training. Thus the bias in favour of the CPE/PGDL candidates furtherdisadvantaged applicants from ethnic minority backgrounds and those fromless privileged social class backgrounds, albeit in an indirect way.9
In the context of legal knowledge and education Professor Birks says: "Itcannot be that a person who has never studied company law will be betterat company law than a person who has. The same is true of, for example,commercial law, employment law and family law, all subjects omitted fromconversion courses. Nor is it likely that all the other jurisdictions which doinsist on a university education in law are uniformly mistaken".10 Inresponding to Professor Birks on this particular point, Clare Deansley, arecruitment partner with Gouldens, says that although law undergraduatesmay study more legal subjects, these are not always relevant to commercialpractice. Most law schools offer a diverse range of options to supplementthe core subject elements and she points out that many students will haveused this time to explore a legal topic they will not pursue in practice.11
The tendency of the legal profession to favour applicants who havetaken a CPE rather than a law degree is viewed from an alternativeperspective by Professor Dobson. He suggests that, instead of attacking theCPE, some of its critics should be asking why their law graduates, whohave had so much longer an exposure to the study of law, are not "streetsahead of the CPE students in getting into the profession." In his view thequestion which needs to be addressed is "What is wrong with the lawdegree?" Professor Dobson suggests that the question to be considered is:"Could it perhaps be that the law of diminishing returns applies to thestudy of more and more academic law. In other words, are we spendingthree years of a law degree getting students to do the same sort of thingover and over again, i.e. the nature of the task the student is asked toperform is the same and the student's learning curve on the skills expectedof him is flattening out? If the object of the extra study is simply to crammore law into the student's memory, then we are embarked upon animpossible mission, since we can never hope to create humanencyclopaedias of the law. Professor Dobson says that however much law astudent learns there will still be the real chance that his, or her, first caseinvolves an area of the new lawyer's ignorance. He also notes thesuggestion that perhaps we teach too much law may be uncomfortable for
9 M. Shiner & T. Newburn, Entry into the Legal Profession: The Law Student Cohort Study, Year 5,London: The Law Society, 1999.
10 P. Birks, The Rise and Rise of the Non-Law Graduate, SPTL Reporter, No. 7, Winter 1993.11 The Times, 28 September 1993.
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those of us who make our living teaching on law degrees and asks what isthe alternative conclusion? He questions what conclusion is sensibly to bedrawn from the fact that our colleagues in the English (or whatever)Department of the university are receiving students with lower entryqualifications but managing to turn out graduates who are, after taking theCPE course, competing successfully against, and often beating, our lawgraduates in the very job market in which the law graduate should havethe edge. He says: "whatever the conclusion is, it surely cannot be that theCPE course is somehow inadequate."12
On the matter of social justice and access to the legal profession,Professor Dobson agrees that CPE courses have a lower representation ofethnic minority students taking them than do law degree courses. However,he points out that CPE courses are run in universities which have in theirmission statements a commitment to widening access and which in manycases have a good record in that respect.13 Looking at recruitment decisionswithin the context of entry to practice, along with examining the skills andqualities possessed by different groups the extent to which patterns ofunder-representation and discrimination continue to act as barriers needs tobe considered. There exists a body of research which indicates that markedpatterns of discrimination and under-representation persist.14 The focus ofthis research has been on barriers to participation at the stage of vocationaltraining and entry to practice15 or at critical points in individual careerdevelopment.16 For example, although a practice rule from July 1995requires all firms of solicitors to operate an anti-discrimination policy, in1997 only 40% of firms reported that they had in place a written equalopportunities policy.17 Of those firms with a written policy, 43% were using
12 P Dobson, CPE Matters Association of Law Teachers' Bulletin, No. 85, pp. 19-20, Autumn1993.
13 Clare Deansley strongly disagrees that the better-connected applicants secure articles moreeasily. She points out that not all clients have the same background or profile nor should allsolicitors or trainees.
14 S. Nott, "Women in the Law, Part 1" (1989) New Law Journal 749-751; M. King et al, EthnicMinorities and Recruitment to the Solicitors' Profession, London: Law Society/Commission forRacial Equality, 1990; TMS Consultants, Without Prejudice? Sex Equality at the Bar and in theJudiciary, Bournemouth: TMS Consultants, 1992; J. Shapland and A. Sorsby, Starting Practice:Work and Training at the Junior Bar, Sheffield: Institute for the Study of the Legal Profession,1995, pp. 74-76; E. Skordaki, Glass Slippers and Glass Ceilings: Women in the Legal Profession(1996) 3 International Journal of The Legal Profession 7, P. Thomas (ed), DiscriminatingLawyers, Cavendish 2000.
15 The Barrow Committee Report, Equal Opportunities at the Inns of Court School of Law, publishedin April 1994; M. Shiner & T Newburn, Entry into the Legal Profession: The Law Student CohortStudy, Year 5, London: The Law Society, 1999.
16 See, e.g. sources cited at n. 1, also H. Sommerlad, "The Myth of Feminisation: Women andCultural Change in the Legal Profession" (1994) 1 International Journal of the Legal Profession 31,B. Cole Trends in the Solicitors' Profession—Annual Statistical Report 1997, London: The LawSociety, 1997; C. McGlynn and C. Graham, Soliciting Equality—Equality and Opportunity in theSolicitors' Profession, London: Young Women Lawyers (1995); C. McGlynn, Soliciting Equality—the way forward' (1995) 145 NLJ 1065-1066, 1070; C. McGlynn "Where Men Still Rule". TheTimes, 22 April 1997; B. Hewson "You've a long way to go, baby" (1996) 146 NLJ 565.
17 The Panel Study of Solicitors' Firms: a study of private practice, 1996/97, London, The Law Society,Research and Policy Planning Unit.
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the Law Society's model anti-discrimination policy. 20% of firms haddeveloped a modified version and 35% had written their own policy. Thelarger firms were more likely to have written their own equal opportunitiespolicy and in the majority of firms, responsibility for the implementation ofthe policy lay with an equity partner or personnel manager. However, in atenth of firms there was no named person with this particularresponsibility. The policy generally applied to all grades of staff andincluded fee earners and support staff. A later study in 1998 showed that26% of firms record the ethnicity of applicants for jobs: but only 29% settargets for the employment of minority ethnic fee earners and only 1% fortrainees.18
The Law Society states that progress is being made towards equalopportunities in the profession. Of newly qualified solicitors 51% arewomen and 15.8% are from minority ethnic groups. The number of womensolicitors has grown by 150% over the past 10 years, and the number ofsolicitors from minority ethnic groups is also rising. However, the Societyalso draws attention to their research which shows that women, mothersand people from ethnic minority groups continue to face difficulties whenentering the law. The bias in favour of applicants who had taken the CPEor who had studied at Oxbridge and/or the College of Law is againhighlighted. Therefore, because the type of firm an aspiring solicitor trainsin is a key factor for his or her career, those who had studied at newuniversities were clearly disadvantaged. Consequently, these groups are lesslikely to secure a training contract in the larger commercial firms where payis usually higher. Moreover, most qualified solicitors (59%) are employedpermanently by the firms in which they were trained. As a result, the morelimited opportunities available to women, mothers and minority ethnicgroups, and others from less privileged backgrounds, when applying fortraining contracts leads to limited opportunities as qualified solicitors.19
With regard to the Bar, there exists an overwhelming bias in favour ofOxbridge graduates when chambers recruit young barristers as pupils. Theeffect of this clearly discriminates against ethnic minority candidates.Figures for 1998-99 show that for a standard white male candidate agedbetween 20 and 24 with a 2:1 law degree, the chances of pupillage were atleast seven times greater if the degree was from Oxford or Cambridge thanif it was from any other university.2^
However, not only is discrimination an increasingly recognised fact inthe legal profession itself, but research undertaken by Young WomenLawyers (YWL) found a disturbing ignorance of certain aspects of the anti-
18 Trends in the Solicitors' Profession, Annual Statistical Report 1999, London, The Law Society,Research and Policy Planning Unit.
19 The Panel Study of Solicitors' Firms: a study of private practice, 1996/97, London, The Law Society,Research and Policy Planning Unit.
20 Clare Dyer, The Guardian, 11 December 1999.
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6 VERA BERMINGHAM AND JOHN HODGSON
discrimination law among many respondents, including some of the largestCity firms.21
Questions for the Research
The project has inevitably been informed by the research and trendsoutlined above and the general questions for this research were therefore asfollows:
• How important are the type of institution attended and the type ofcourse studied when recruitment decisions are being made?
• How much weighting does a candidate's degree classification carryboth in law and in the non-law subject studied by CPE applicants?
• How important is a candidate's performance in the CPE?
• Which particular skills and attributes are employers seeking?
• Are claims in recruitment literature that it is the quality of theperson, not detailed areas of knowledge which are important, borneout in practice?
• What non-law subjects are favoured?
• Which attributes and skills are valued?
• Who possesses these attributes and skills?
• Is there evidence that patterns of disadvantage are changing?
• Is the rhetoric of access and participation being reflected inrecruitment policy?
Methodology
The research methodology consisted of:
• Documentary analysis of recruitment policy criteria based oninformation contained in recruitment information brochures andfrom the 1999 Law Careers.net CD-ROM.
• Quantitative and qualitative analysis of information on recruitmentpolicies/procedures obtained from a postal questionnaire survey ofall the main law firms and sets of chambers in England.
21 C. McGlynn "Where Men Still Rule" The Times, 22 April 1997. Ignorance of the law was alsohighlighted in recently published research sponsored by BP Amoco, the Cabinet Office and theDfEE. This showed considerable evidence that companies were still confusing employmentquotas with employment targets. The Guardian, January 15, 2000.
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DESIDERAIA: WHAT LAWYERS WANT FROM THEIR RECRUITS 7
Analysis of data on the background of students enrolled for thePostgraduate Diploma in Law (CPE) course at Nottingham LawSchool for year of entry 1996-1999 inclusive.
The Questionnaire
The questionnaire survey, which contained quantitative and qualitativeelements, was designed to be completed by a person with responsibility forrecruitment decisions or who was familiar with the set of chambers' /firm'srecruitment policies. In designing the questionnaire there was concernabout the possibility of a poor response rate. In attempting to address thisissue considerable emphasis was placed on producing an instrument whichwould facilitate expeditious completion. It was believed that the lessonerous the questionnaire appeared to the potential respondent the morechance it had of being completed. The first part of the questionnaire dealtwith the quantitative information and requested statistical and factual dataon past, current and future recruitment. The second part of thequestionnaire was concerned with the qualitative data and, for ease ofcompletion, all questions in this part were in the form of scaled responses.(This approach also facilitated the task of statistical analysis.).
The survey of Solicitors was conducted by a questionnaire distributed inmid-February 1999 to all firms in the Legal 500. The survey of Sets ofChambers was conducted by a similar questionnaire distributed also mid-February 1999 to all sets of chambers known to recruit pupils regularly,using the Bar Council database. The questionnaires were accompanied by acovering letter which outlined briefly the nature of the research. The letteremphasised the value of responses from the profession in informing thenational debate about the content and delivery of legal education. The letteralso made clear that all information would be confidential and presented inan anonymised form. Respondents were asked to return the completedquestionnaires by 10 March 1999.
At the March deadline for response, approximately 100 responses hadbeen received, fairly evenly split between the bar and solicitors.22 However,although the response from provincial and medium sized law firms wassatisfactory, very few of the large City firms responded to the survey.Considering the high proportion of trainees recruited by the large Cityfirms and because of concern about the extent to which absence of this datawould distort the research findings, it was decided to send a secondmailing targeted specifically at these firms.23 At the end of July 1999 a
22 This excludes about 10 responses from firms and chambers reporting that they did not in factrecruit trainees/pupils, or were too recently established to make an informed response.
23 Recent figures show that the top ten City Firms recruit approximately 1,050 recruits out of atotal number of 4,500 candidates each year. Legal Week, 30 September 1999.
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8 VERA BERMINGHAM AND JOHN HODGSON
further 60 copies of the original questionnaire were sent with a modifiedcovering letter noting the lack of response from the City firms to theoriginal questionnaire. The second letter again stressed the importance ofresponses from large firms in informing the debate about the content anddelivery of legal education. The letter further emphasised how the firm'sresponse would enable legal education to be tailored more closely to meetthe needs of the profession. Respondents to the second questionnaire wereasked to return the completed questionnaires by 31 August 1999. However,this second mailing resulted in only a further ten responses. Overall, thepostal survey produced 110 useable responses.
Although this poor rate of response from the City firms is disappointingit is not unusual. For example, in 1995, the Young Women Lawyers (YWL)surveyed employment practices in the biggest 200 solicitors' firms andobtained a response rate of only just under a third. This contrasted with a60% response rate when YWL carried out its first survey two yearspreviously.24
Many of the respondents were unable or unwilling to provide thedetailed quantitative data required. Those who did were only responsiblefor a limited number of recruits and the effort of analysing the data wasnot felt to be worth the effort. It does however remind us that, outside thetop 11 law firms, who between them account for some 1200 recruitsannually25 legal recruitment is on a small scale. In the same survey of 90 ofthe largest law firms 19 are recorded as recruiting in single figures and afurther 32 recruit under 20 annually. While firms routinely complain ofbeing deluged with thousands of applications, it is clear that the finalstages of the recruitment process are on a relatively small scale. In thiscontext individual attitudes and even prejudices are likely to be relevant.As will be seen in the next section, our survey population does not includethe "big eleven" but can be seen as representative for the smaller recruiterswho nevertheless represent the majority of the overall market.26
Breakdown of Respondents
The total response included 57 solicitors firms and 53 sets of chambers. Thisis a response rate of just over 10% for solicitors and about 15% forbarristers.27
Respondents were asked to indicate which of a number of practice typesbest described them. The responses were:
24 C. McGlynn, "Where men still rule", The Times, 22 April 1997.25 Source: Legal Week 30.11.99, p. 24.26 The total market for trainees is some 4,500, and for pupils 700. Deducting 1,200 for the 'big
eleven' leaves 4,000.27 The Legal 500 does not contain 500 firms, but nearer 600; however some are not English firms.
The Bar database contained some 370 entries, but some chambers with annexes areduplicated.
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These respondents accounted for around 290 recruits in 1998. 102respondents answered this question. Numbers recruited ranged from 28 to1, but 75 respondents recruited 3 or fewer.28 These respondents accountedfor around 7% of recruitment from the market excluding the "big eleven".
Law Graduates: Institutions and Course Type
One aspect of potential employers' preferences relates to the type ofinstitution attended by law graduates and the type of course studied. Weasked respondents to indicate how important they considered theinstitution attended to be. Of 106 respondents 12 rated it as very important,58 as important (together 66%) 30 as not very important and 14 asunimportant.
The institution is therefore an important consideration, although the lownumbers giving it the highest priority may mean that the preference is for atype of institution rather than a specific university. Solicitors seem to give aslightly higher importance to this factor.
We also asked respondents to rate different categories of institution. Onlyoverall figures are given, as the two branches of the profession producedsimilar figures:
n = 100
OxbridgeRedbrickOther pre1992Post 1992CHE etc.
Excellent
44459
21
Good
475158
257
Average
6428
4238
BelowAverage
3
3
2430
Poor
——1
26
28 Figures for 1999 are similar, but only 85 responded. The pattern is the same with 59 recruiting3 or fewer.
9
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These results appear to be consistent with other relevant data,29 althoughthe slightly poorer ranking for Oxbridge as compared to the Redbricks isinteresting. One or two respondents indicated that their preference forOxbridge was based on the fact that Oxbridge recruited the cream of thepotential students, not that they provided the best legal education.
Respondents were also asked to indicate a preference for different stylesof degree:
n = 98 Very Strong Some Limited LeastStrong Preference Preference Preference PreferredPreference
SingleHonoursJointHonoursMixedDegreeModularDegree
48
17
10
4
16
39
6
2
32
38
66
45
1
2
10
28
1
2
4
15
The categories were not further defined. We assume respondentsunderstood mixed degrees to be those covering several distinct disciplines,and modular degrees to be of the "pick and mix" variety as described inthe general media. In the technical sense a modular degree is merely onethat is provided under a modular scheme and a student may in principleselect 100% law modules in such a scheme.
A number of respondents declined to provide comparative rankings onthe ground that they considered each applicant on his/her individualmerits, and others qualified the rankings they gave with similarobservations.
The responses both for institutional and degree types are marked by anobvious conservatism. The newer universities (including the newer pre-1992institutions) tend to offer more mixed and modular programmes, but it isnot clear whether they are less favoured for this reason, or whether thesetypes of degree programme are less well regarded because of the reputationof the institutions that offer them. Since students from lower socio-economic groups and ethnic minorities are more strongly represented at
29 E.g. Signposts to Employability 2000 (Performance Indicator Project, Grantham) ed. C Pettifor,where, for law, Oxbridge is ranked dearly ahead, the remainder of the top ten ranking placesgo to Redbricks and the top new University is ranked 26th. The Times League Table for Law(11.4.00) again places Oxbridge at the top with 14 Redbricks in the top 20 and the top newUniversity at 32nd place. These tables are based on Teaching Quality Assessment and ResearchAssessment Exercise scores and on average A Level points of entrants.
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these institutions one can legitimately ask if their negative experiences interms of recruitment are due to discrimination on racial or social groundsor reflect a more general negative attitude to their educational background.The converse is of course true, that Oxbridge and the Redbricks recruitdisproportionately from the white upper social classes. There is also generalawareness that Oxbridge and the Redbricks are able to be extremelyselective and normally only take applicants with extremely high entryqualifications, while this is often not the case in the new universities.Twenty of the top twenty-five universities ranked by average A level pointsfor admission are in the Oxbridge/Redbrick category (with the others allbeing pre 1992 institutions). The first post 1992 institution appears atnumber 53 3 0
As might be expected, respondents gave considerable weight to acandidate's degree classification,31 both in Law and in the non-law subjectstudied by CPE applicants, although the performance in the CPE itself wassubstantially less important:
n = 110 Very Important Not Very Unimportant N/RImportant Important
1 2— 3
Law DegreeNon LawdegreeCPE
4037
19
6061
63
79
2
The relative ranking for the CPE may be because most such candidatesare actually selected on the basis of their degree performance. It is alsonoticeable that while the degree class is at least important to some 90% ofrespondents, only a minority actually classes it as very important. This isconsistent with the high but not pre-eminent ranking of "intelligence"among the attributes of potential recruits recorded below.
Desirable Attributes
In order to obtain information on the attributes which employers areseeking, a substantial quantity of recruitment literature was reviewed. Inpart this came from the careers service collection at Nottingham LawSchool and in part from the 1999 Law Careers.net CD-ROM, The greatmajority of this came from solicitors firms; while individual chambers havestarted to produce recruitment literature, this is a recent phenomenon. It is
30 Source: Thesis http://www.thesis.co.uk/tp/999/PRN/OPEN/STATISTICS/statistics.html31 Also reflected in Signposts to Employability note 29 above, p. 29. 77% of legal employer
respondents placed degree classification in the 'Top 12 Qualities sought' ranking it fifth equal.This is roughly the same ranking as all respondents, p. 4.
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noteworthy that the emphasis in the literature is almost entirely on thegeneral personality of the preferred recruit, sometimes reduced to a slogan,such as Allen & Overy's "People with Latitude". Although the languageused varies the clear indication is that lateral thinking, commercial acumen,problem-solving ability and teamwork are the desired qualities. There isvirtually no suggestion that specific legal knowledge beyond the core isnecessary or even desirable, and some firms are at pains to stress that theyhave no preferences in this field. In conversation recruitment managers willindicate that some consideration is given to option choices, but only in ageneral sense. If a candidate has studied only options with no apparentrelevance to commercial practice, this may indicate that they are neithercommitted to this as a career nor particularly suited to it. Law studentsnonetheless continue to believe that they must study a restricted number ofoptional subjects to stand any chance of selection by commercial firms.
We quite intentionally did not ask a direct question in the questionnaireabout recruitment criteria. We were conscious that respondents, perhapsparticularly in solicitors' firms, would have been aware of the need to givea "politically correct" response, and we were more interested in gettingwhat we hoped would be a less self-conscious response to the otherquestions which were designed to explore what lies behind the publiccriteria. In any event the public criteria were available to us from theanalysis of recruitment literature.32
Law Options
We attempted to obtain a clearer idea of the attitude of potential employersto specific study by asking them to rank as essential, desirable or non-essential a number of common optional subjects. We sought to include themost commonly offered optional subjects, as reported in Harris and Jones,33
together with a number of obviously professionally relevant options. Inorder to obtain a ranking we allocated a score of 2 for "essential" 1 for"desirable" and 0 for non-essential. A total of 106 respondents providedsome data, so the maximum score is 212.
We also identified which subjects were of differential importance to thetwo branches of the profession.
32 It should however be noted that our research predated the current furore over allegedly elitistand/or indirectly discriminatory practices by the big law firms arising from Lord Woolf'sobservations in the course of the Upjohn Lecture 2000 (2000) The Law Teacher 34.3 p. 269 onthe subject of the proposed "City LPC".
33 A Survey of Law Schools in the United Kingdom, 1996 (1997) 31 (1) The Law Teacher 38, 51-52.
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*If the data for Human Rights and Civil Liberties are conflated the score becomes 66 (9/48/48)
There are a number of conclusions to be drawn from this data. The firstis that there is no strong desire to see additional subjects incorporated intothe legal core. Even the most favoured subject achieved a result that is lessthan equivalent to being seen as desirable on average, and only in respectof the top five subjects is there a clear majority even regarding the subjectas being desirable. To this extent the indications in the recruitmentliterature are borne out, and the student assumption that they must study"professionally desirable" options is not borne out. There is however adistinct difference between the two branches of the profession. Solicitorswere much more likely to indicate subjects to be essential or desirable. This
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interest is concentrated on those subjects which can be characterised as"commercial".
This appears from the indications in the table above of which branchfavoured the particular options, and also from a more detailed analysis ofthe results for the seven most favoured subjects:
Subject
Evidence
Employment
Commercial
Company
Landlord &Tenant
Family
Human Rights*
Rank
1
2 =
2 =
4
5
6
7
B or S
S(5 = )B (1)S(3)B(3)S (1)B(6)S(2)B(7)S(4)
B(5)S(5 = )B(4)S(7)B(2)
Score
375754366228582344
3137352838
Essential
619125185151
7
28736
Desirable
251930262618282130
2721212226
Non-essential
22141021929103016
2325242820
*Conflated figures with Civil Liberties used.
It is dear that the overall results mask considerable differences ofemphasis between the two branches of the profession, but these simplyreflect the work done by the two branches and their resultant priorities.
The median scores across these seven subjects give the following results(rounding means that totals will not add up):
Score Essential Desirable Non-essential
Solicitors 46 10 26 17Barristers 37.5 6.5 22.5 23
This demonstrates that solicitors are, firstly, likely to give higher marks(after adjusting for the proportions in the sample, solicitors give on averageabout 14% more marks) and, secondly, that this is accounted for by the factthat they are both more likely to rate subjects as essential, and less likely torate them as non-essential. This tendency of solicitors to be more marked intheir preferences is repeated in other similar ranking exercises in the survey.
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It should be remembered that, while the sample contains a number ofsmaller and provincial commercially oriented firms, and a cross-section ofchambers, it does not contain the largest firms, and this may distort theresults to some extent. It should also be noted that the results may bedistorted in other ways; for instance several respondents identifiedthemselves as specialist family law firms or sets, and this particular area ofpractice may be over-represented in the sample.
The outcome also makes slightly depressing reading for those who see alaw degree as a genuine liberal education, rather than as a pre-vocationalprogramme. On balance the favoured subjects are not those which wouldbe seen as most obviously contributing to a critical and theoretical approachto law (although there are exceptions, such as Family Law, Human Rightsand Jurisprudence). Most of the favoured options are included in the list ofthose most commonly offered by law schools in Harris & Jones.34 Of thetop seven in our list Evidence was offered by 71%, Employment by 88%,Commercial by 83%, Company by 85%, Landlord & Tenant was not listed,Family was offered by 83% and Human Rights by 85% (percentagesrounded by us). All except Landlord & Tenant fall within Harris & Jones'"top group" of options, together with Environmental Law, Revenue andJurisprudence. These figures reflect the frequency with which the subject isoffered, not the size of the uptake.
Non Law Subjects of Origin
It is of course not possible to look in the same way at directly relevantoptions for the non-law study of CPE entrants. Recruitment literature againtends to stress the personal qualities and intellectual attributes required ofnon-law graduate recruits, and only with firms with particular strengths intechnology or medico-legal areas is there any indication that they arelooking for a particular discipline of origin. Wfe asked respondents toindicate their attitude to a number of disciplines. These were selected toinclude those which accounted for most actual CPE students, and otherswhich appeared to have specific relevance together with 'media studies' asan example of a relatively new, "fashionable" and interdisciplinary degree.Responses were requested on a five point scale from "Very Positive" to"Very Negative" and these were weighted from + 2 for "Very Positive" to—2 for "Very Negative" and the overall ranking determined by deductingnegative from positive scores. Respondents were also asked to indicateother disciplines they would regard positively, but very few did.Mathematics and Classics were each mentioned three times and Theologytwice. Around a hundred respondents answered this question to someextent (where a reason was given for not responding it was that it was not
34 Loc. cit.
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possible to generalise, as candidates were considered on their individualmerits).
n = 99 Very Positive Neutral Negative Very Score Rank-Positive ( + 1) (0) (-1) Negative (%) ing( + 2) (-2)
The maximum possible score for any discipline is 198, representing a"Very Positive" grading from each of 99 respondents. The highest gradingrepresents only some 42% of this, but this results largely from a fairlysubstantial neutral score. It is not clear whether this is to be interpreted as agenuinely neutral view of the particular discipline or as a general opinionthat the discipline studied is a matter of indifference. There are very fewnegative views, and the differential between the higher and lower rankeddisciplines is accounted for by declining positive gradings, i.e. a reductionin enthusiasm rather than any general antipathy (except towards MediaStudies).
There is a very strong interest in humanities graduates, although otherdisciplines clearly are of some interest. This appears to confirm the generalimpression of conservatism noticeable in preferences for institutions andtypes of degree earlier in this paper. The disastrous rating of Media Studiesreinforces this. It is a matter for speculation whether this is snobbery,
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neophobia, a belief that it is a "non-subject" offered by new universities toless able students or some combination of all of these.
Solicitors and barristers were equally represented. Solicitors again hadsubstantially stronger views (by approximately 23%). It is not surprising,particularly since relative attitudes were a reflection of the strength orweakness of a broadly positive feeling, that they were more positive abouteight of the disciplines. This was particularly marked in Languages (50:33),Economics (43:26), Business Studies (30:—1), Accountancy (29:11) andGeography (20;10) and there were smaller margins in Computing/IT,Engineering and Science. The Bar led only in relation to English (45:39) andMedia Studies (—22: —30). History, Politics and Medicine attracted almostequal support from the two branches.
These data relate to impressions and ratings in the abstract. Data forstudents on the Nottingham Law School PgDL for the 1996-1999 cohortsinclusive have been analysed. It became apparent that a substantialproportion (approximately 60%) had not studied a single honoursprogramme (even counting two or more languages as a single discipline). Itwas not always easy to identify the principal discipline in a joint mixed ormodular programme, and the resulting data is not, therefore, entirelyconsistent.
There were 420 students. 121 had studied principally history, 58languages and 51 English. Politics and economics accounted for a further 55with the others drawn from a wide range of disciplines.35
There is a strong resemblance between these data. History, Languagesand English are the most approved of disciplines and account for some55% of the NLS students. These are of course among the largest disciplines,and they are, in particular History and English, also non-vocational.According to HESA statistics36 the total undergraduate population is1,309,000. Deducting 40,000 law students leaves a total of 1,269,000. Theproportion from different subject areas is set out below. These figures canonly be approximate, since the discipline categories for the NLS students donot precisely match HESA categories. The HESA figures are for the totalundergraduate population for one year while the NLS figures cover fourcohorts drawn largely from the graduating classes of four successive years,but with some mature entrants from earlier graduating classes.
If Language and Humanities students are considered against this globalpopulation, their over-representation is striking, as they account for justunder 10% of the population and 60% of the intake.
35 Although the NLS course is not necessarily typical, it should be noted that 338 (80%) camefrom Oxbridge and the Redbricks, 56 from other pre-1992 Universities and 26 from post-1992Universities.
36 www.hesa.ac.uk: Public Information; Students by Subject and Gender 1995-1996.
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Percentage ofPopulation
Percentage ofIntake
Over/Under-representation
Languages/Humanities 10Social/Political Sciences 7Science etc. 26Business Studies 12Other 45
601810210
+ 600%+ 260%-260%-600%-450%
There may be good reasons for some over-representation of this group,as the other groups tend to be more vocationally oriented which is borneout by the fact that social scientists, whose courses might also be seen asless vocational than some, are also slightly over-represented. Against thiscan however be set the fact that business studies and social sciences(especially Economics) could be seen as potentially more relevant to a legalcareer, especially in the more business and commercially oriented practiceareas.
Although the NLS data is valuable in identifying the characteristics ofactual CPE students, in considering how these relate to respondents' ratingof disciplines, we must bear in mind that the NLS data refers to studentswho are offering themselves for selection, rather than to students whocommend themselves to recruiters. It should however be noted that of the420 students, 176 (42%) were identified as being sponsored by prospectiveemployers.37 A comparison may also be made with the Fourth Report of theLaw Society Longitudinal Survey,38 which found no strong indication thatthe subject of the CPE student's first degree was influential in whether ornot a training contract was secured. Social science and languages werefound to have a positive correlation (although the figures given confirm thisfor languages but not social science).
The general picture is therefore of highly able students39 from a verytraditional background, and the only slight surprise is that there is such astrong preference for languages and humanities students as compared tothose from more commercial backgrounds.
We can perhaps therefore account for the popularity of CPE graduates ofperceived high calibre as compared to law graduates of lower calibre. Anydeficiency in legal knowledge will be made up by better all round quality.What this does not account for is the apparent preference for CPEgraduates even over high calibre Law graduates reported in the LawSociety Longitudinal Survey which manifests itself in findings that CPE
37. All by solicitors, and rising from 22% to 62% of the cohort over the period under review.38 M. Shiner, Entry into the Legal Profession Year 4 The Law Society/PSI 1997.39 88% held a first or IIi.40 See note 34 above.
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graduates had the same employment prospects, on average, as lawgraduates with a degree one class better.
The first data appears in the third report.41 Where factors in offers oftraining contracts are isolated the crude figures for success rates are: Degree50%: CPE 69%. But there are wide variations and students with a College ofLaw CPE achieved 85% and those with a new university CPE only 59%.42
However there is a complex of factors at work. These include: ethnicity,social class, type of institution, class of degree/CPE and these will favourthe typical CPE candidate, who tends to be white, middle class and froman old university. When a multivariate analysis was performed there was "adiscernible bias in favour of respondents who had taken the CPE".43 Thosewith distinction or merit are as likely to receive an offer as first class lawgraduates (and there are 35% with distinction and merit against 4% lawfirsts). This favourable pattern is repeated at lower levels of achievement. Ineffect the CPE is rated a good degree class better than the LLB.
There is a similar pattern for offers of pupillage. Firsts in law are the topgrouping (but a very small one). CPE students with a first or upper secondin their first degree are much more favoured than upper seconds in lawand similarly at lower levels. Overall 72% of CPEs had an offer and 52% ofLLBs. This is not wholly explained by the general prevalence of good CPEcandidates. The quality of CPE pass appears immaterial.44 This appears toecho our findings that less significance is attached to the CPE class than tothe degree class for all students.
The fourth survey confirmed that CPE students have a better runthrough LPC/BVC and into training/pupillage, in the sense that theyperform better and are more likely to obtain a position.
'This bias has very serious implications for the social and ethniccomposition of the profession because CPE students were, in general,drawn from more privileged social backgrounds than those who had takena law degree and were more likely to be white."45
There is some indication that the two categories have different careeraspirations. CPE students are more attracted to "Commercial" than to 'HighStreet' work (40:33%). These proportions are reversed for law graduates(30:47%) There was no difference found in attitudes to "large provincial"work. This is not however reflected in actual placement in training. Fromthe sample CPE students were doing High Street and Commercial workequally but law graduates were doing much more High Street. The figures for
41 M. Shiner, and T. Newburn, Entry into the Legal Profession Year 3 The Law Society/PSI 199542 P 82 Table 6.1.43 P. 64.44 P. 122.45 P. 10.
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law graduates figures reflect a heavy bias to High Street practice amongstudents from the new universities.46
General Attributes
In order to seek an explanation for the apparent bias to CPE studentsrespondents were asked to rank a number of general personal attributesand also a longer list of more specific professional attributes or skills. Inaddition to ranking the latter, respondents were asked to indicate the extentto which law graduates and CPE entrants respectively possessed theseattributes. A number of respondents declined to do this, on the groundsthat it was impossible to generalise, and others made no distinction, givingboth groups the same profile.
*In order to produce a dearer outcome, particularly when breaking the results down to analysesub-dasses) the responses were weighted according to the degree of importance attributed tothem.
46 P. 49.
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These results do not support a hypothesis that CPE students, who aregenerally perceived to be more au fait with current affairs are attractive forthat reason, although it does perhaps indicate why students from abusiness studies background are not more sought after. These findings areat variance with those in Signposts to Employability47 where "businessawareness" was a significant feature for 92% of respondent employers inthe law field, and for 64% overall across a range of disciplines.
Most attributes are quite highly valued. These scores are much higherthan the positive ratings for optional law subjects and even subjects for firstdegrees. Those attributes which might be seen as social rather thanintellectual (and hence perhaps as possessed in greater measure by themore socially advantaged CPE students) are relatively low-ranked. There istherefore nothing obvious to account for the relative preference given toCPE students, since all the highest ranked attributes appear to apply to allgroups of student equally. The primacy given to intellectual ability appearsto support marginally the hypothesis that CPE entrants are preferred toweaker law students, but not why they appear to outrank even the moreable law students.
There are, perhaps more interestingly, substantial variations in rankingbetween the branches of the profession which are masked by the overallfigures.
Once again, the bar is generally less pronounced in its support across allcategories. Many of the distinctions simply serve to reinforce traditionalperceptions of the two professions. The Bar is detached and individualistic,while solicitors value teamwork. However the ranking for "intellectualability" among solicitors is surprising, particularly having regard to the sizeof the differential with "flexibility" in such a relatively small sample.
Specific Attributes/Skills
We sought to describe the intellectual, key and vocational attributes andskills surveyed broadly compatibly with the equivalent categories in theLaw benchmarks and the latest edition of the Joint Statement on QualifyingLaw Degrees. Unfortunately neither of these was available in a definitiveform at the time the research was conducted. Some are intellectual skills ina narrow sense (Analysis/Synthesis, Evaluation, Creativity, Critiquing).Some are general "transferable" or key skills (Problem Solving, Autonomy,Teamwork, Time Management, IT skills, Numeracy and Communication/Literacy). Others are the more specific legal DRAIN skills (Drafting,Research, Advocacy, Interviewing and Negotiation) on which the practicalelements of the BVC and LPC, as well as equivalent courses in otherjurisdictions, have been based. Some respondents were clearly unfamiliar
47 Performance Indicator Project 2000, p. 27 (Law), p. 4 (full spectrum).
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with the concept of critiquing, and there were 11 non-responses on thisitem by respondents who otherwise responded to this question. Virtually allrespondents provided a general ranking of these attributes, but about 25did not provide a response on the respective attributes of law and CPEstudents, as noted above.
*As indicated, 11 respondents, or 10%, did not respond to this item. The average score of thosewho did would produce a revised total of 62, and a reversal of ranking with IT" Rankings were given weighted scores of +2 for Essential, +1 for Very Important 0 forImportant and —1 for Not Very Important. The total possible score was 218."Responses were weighted: Always +2, Usually +1 , Frequently/Often 0 and Rarely/Never —1.There were 86 fully analysable responses and percentages are based on this figure. The maximumscore is 172.
There is a clear emphasis on general attributes. There is also aremarkably consistent rating for four of the DRAIN skills in the middlerank. This includes negotiation, which has recently been removed from theLPC. The odd one out is interviewing. This was seen as less important bythe bar, and this accounts for the disparity with the other DRAIN skills. Inthe majority of cases there was no major difference between the ratings
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given by the two branches, although, as in other categories the bar was onbalance slightly less marked in its preferences. The bar understandablyassigned substantially greater importance to advocacy. The bar score for thiswas 90, as compared to 84 for communication and literacy and 82 foranalysis and synthesis. The bar also gave a less marked but still noticeablygreater weighting to research. Solicitors gave greater weighting to teamwork, time management and IT and to a lesser extent problem solving.
Signposts to Employability uses different categories, but it is clear thatcommunication skills are highly rated by their respondents also. The onlyother directly comparable criteria are teamworking, which also receives amid-range ranking, and computing/IT which receives a lower to mid-rangeranking.48
Do they have the Attributes?
Respondents were asked to indicate how frequently these skills were foundin the two categories of entrant. No attempt was made to define the pointat which this evaluation should be made. Some respondents may haveconsidered them at the point of entry to training and pupillage and othersat the point of qualifying. We do not consider this is particularlymeaningful in terms of the validity of the data.
The overall scores across all categories are Law 330 and CPE 413. Thebreakdowns for groups of attributes are:
General Intellectual Attributes Law 75, CPE 114.Transferable Skills Law 198, CPE 233.DRAIN Skills Law 57, CPE 66.
There is thus a relatively small but consistent difference, to theadvantage of the CPE, across the board. However the single most markeddisparity is the lead of 63 to 49 which law graduates have in research. It isalso noteworthy that over the nine most highly ranked attributes there ismuch less difference. Law graduates score a net 228 for these and CPEentrants a net 246. This is a difference of 18 out of the total difference of 83,so 65 marks, or 78% of the total comes in the lower ranked attributes,which were seen as essential or very important by only a minority ofrespondents. It may be the case that CPE entrants are seen as better all-rounders, and they are certainly not seen on balance as being at adisadvantage in relation to specifically legal attributes.
48 Ranked second with 91% including them in the "top 12", p. 29 ibid.
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Specific Qualitative Questions
This final group of questions was designed to address a number of theanecdotal or traditional opinions on the nature of legal training and practicewhich might throw light on the actual preferences reported.
The questions were not organised in such a way that positive andnegative answers can be consistently construed. It is necessary to lookacross the individual questions to see whether they actually disclose aparticular set of patterns of thought.
In ranking answers the strong expression has been scored 2, the ordinaryexpression one and the neutral zero. When the response for the particularquestion is being considered, agreement is positive and disagreementnegative, but where questions are being cross-matched this is not alwaysappropriate, and the scores are specifically reported.
It is clear that the neutral response may mean several things. In somecases (notably questions 3 and 4 on the ethnic and social background ofCPE entrants) it principally means that respondents did not know theanswer, as many actually wrote in. In other cases it may mean no realpreference, but it may mean an equally strong preference for the oppositespresented, as in question 13, where a respondent might consider bothknowledge and research ability to be extremely, but equally, important.
Strongly Agree Neither Disagree StronglyAgree Agree nor Disagree
Disagree
1 The study of academic 9 33 24 26 16law for one year cannotbe adequate preparationfor a career as a lawyer.
2 It is incomprehensible 3 19 43 33 10that the legal professionprefers CPE/PGDLstudents to lawgraduates.
3 Those from ethnic 2 17 79 8 1minority groups areunder-represented onCPE/PGDL courses.
4 Those from 5 25 71 6 —disadvantaged socialbackgrounds are under-represented on CPE/PGDL courses.
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Strongly Agree Neither Disagree StronglyAgree Agree nor Disagree
Disagree
5 It is misleading to say 23 60 14 11 —that a CPE/PGDLstudent becomes alawyer after only oneyear's study of law.
6 During the three years 2 14 42 42 8of a law degree studentslearn to perform thesame type of task overand over again andmuch of this repetition isunnecessary.
7 CPE/PGDL students 10 65 25 6 2bring into law firmsvaluable experience fromlife outside the law.
8 With the reducing cost 3 33 19 43 9of information and legalresearch databasesreadily accessible it isnot necessary to attemptto cram so much lawinto the student'smemory.
9 However much law a 19 42 12 12 3student learns there willstill be a real chance thatthe first case they dealwith in practice willinvolve an area of thenew lawyer's ignorance.
10 The foundations of legal 43 56 6 2 1knowledge (contract,tort, land, trusts/equity,crime, EU andconstitutional/administrative law) arean essential intellectualgrounding for the lawyerin practice.
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Strongly Agree Neither Disagree StronglyAgree Agree nor Disagree
Disagree
11 The foundations of legal 16 26 19 46 11knowledge contain mostof the law a lawyer usesin practice.
12 The foundations of legal 13 64 25 5 —knowledge lead in to thelaw that is important inpractice.
13 It is more important to 14 57 15 19 3be able to find the lawthan to know the law.
14 Law graduates have the 23 52 27 6 —best research skills.
15 Understanding the 1 13 42 44 8economic and politicalcontext of law is moreimportant thancomparative legalknowledge.
16 Trainees/pupils should 10 58 21 17 1know the law beforethey start their trainingcontract/pupillage.
Question 9, question 13 and question 16 all address the issue of whetherstudents emerge, or should emerge, from training with a completeknowledge of the law, or whether they emerge into an environment wherethey have to apply knowledge and research skills to new areas.
• There is strong support, taken individually, for the propositions thattrainees/pupils should know the law before they commencetraining/pupillage ( + 58 or 78/19), that it is more important to findthe law than to know the law ( + 60 or 85/25) and that the newlawyer is likely to meet an unfamiliar area of law, however muchlaw s/he knows (+ 62 or 80/18).
• Those who believe that it is more important to be able to find the lawoverwhelmingly accept the possibility of the new lawyer meeting anunfamiliar area. A1/A2 78:49 A1/D2 11: D1/A2 22: D1/D2 7.
49 Strongly Agree to both scores 4; Strongly Agree to one, Agree to the other scores 2; Agree toboth scores 1.
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• However those who believe trainees/pupils should know the law beforecommencing also accept the possibility of the new lawyer meeting anunfamiliar area. A3/A2 76: A3/D215: D3/A2 20: D3/D21.
• Opinions are more balanced when one considers the finalrelationship. A small plurality agrees both that it is more importantto be able to find the law and that trainees/pupils should know thelaw on starting. A1/A3 52: A1/D3 18: D1/A3 40: D1/D3 22. There isthus a substantial minority which appears to require knowledgerather than research skills, and expects this to have been providedbefore training/pupillage.
Questions 10-12 explore how the profession views the foundations oflegal knowledge. These of course comprise virtually the whole substance ofthe CPE50 and are the required element of a Qualifying Law Degree.
• There is overwhelming support for the foundations as an "essentialintellectual grounding" ( + 138 or 142/4).
• The foundations are not seen on balance as containing most of thelaw needed in practice (—10 or 58/68).
• However they are seen as leading into what is important in practice( + 85 or 90/5).
• There is no appreciable difference between those who regard oneyear as adequate for academic legal study and those who don'twhen one considers their response to these questions. Those who doconsider one year adequate were slightly more likely to respondpositively on whether the foundations contained or led into the lawimportant in practice.
Question 6 explored Professor Dobson's suggestion that the law degreewas viewed as repetitive, and question 9 his linked suggestion that one cannever teach all the law.51 There is little support for the first of thesepropositions (overall score —40) but there is, as we have seen, support forthe second. (Overall score + 62).
Monitoring
Examination of employment practices of the legal profession at all levelsdemonstrates a clear need for its compliance with equal opportunities law.Since this project was being conducted at a time when all types of unlawful
50 There is a requirement for coverage of one additional area of law, but not in very greatbreadth or depth.
51 See above page 3.
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discrimination have a high profile and are the subject of unprecedentedmedia attention,52 respondents were asked if applications received, offersand acceptances of training contracts were monitored by reference to: (a)Gender; (b) Ethnic origin and (c) Disability.
Gender
BarSolicitorsTotal
Ethnic Minority
BarSolicitorsTotal
Disability
BarSolicitorsTotal
Yes
231639
Yes
251742
Yes
151328
No
284169
No
264066
No
364480
Total
5157108
Total
5157108
Total
5157108
The response to the question on gender monitoring shows a 36.1% rateof monitoring overall. Of this number the bar shows a higher rate ofmonitoring at 45.1% while, in the case of solicitors, 28.1% of respondentssaid they monitor for gender. With ethnic minority monitoring the overallrate of those who monitor for ethnicity was higher at 38.9%. Of thisnumber, the bar again shows a higher incidence of monitoring at 49% whilein the case of solicitors, the incidence is notably lower at 29.8%. Thisparticular finding is not entirely consistent with the Law Society finding onmonitoring which shows that 26% of firms record ethnicity of applicants for
52 T. Modood, et al (eds.), Ethnic Minorities in Britain: Diversity and Disadvantage, 1997, London:Policy Studies Institute; T. Jones, Britain's Ethnic Minorities: An Analysis of the Labour ForceSurvey, 1996, London: Policy Studies Institute; Qualifying for racism, Trades Union CongressReport, January 2000 states that those of African, Afro-Caribbean and Asian ethnicity fail toget a fair share of promotions at work despite better qualifications. One of the explanationsput forward for this finding is that equal opportunities policies launched with the best ofintentions fail to permeate the workforce. Kamaljeet Jandu, race issues policy officer at theTUC, also points out that, "It's no longer good enough to concentrate on recruitment figures.It's the quality of the job that counts. Companies have policies, but only on paper. So they areneither implemented nor bench-marked." (The Guardian, 18 December 1999). Researchcommissioned by the Runnymede Trust and sponsored by BP Amoco, the Cabinet Office andthe DfEE.
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jobs.53 However this inconsistency may be explained by the fact that ourquestion specifically asked about monitoring applications for trainingcontracts rather than job applications. Alternatively, the inconsistency maybe the result of a distortion of the figures due to absence of data from theCity firms. The question on disability monitoring shows a much lower rateof monitoring overall at 25.9%. The bar response again shows a higher rateof monitoring at 29.4% but revealing a narrower gap with solicitors whoshowed 22.8% disability monitoring.
It is perhaps instructive to consider the response to the question onawareness of ethnic issues in relation to the CPE in the context ofmonitoring undertaken. The result is that there is a correlation betweenawareness and monitoring:
Those (correctly) agreeing comprise 29.3% of those who monitor for thisfactor, but only 10.9% of those who do not.
For the legal profession to be in a position to lead and assist its clients inavoiding unlawful discrimination, the response to this question indicatesthat it has a long way to go before it will be able to demonstrate its owncompliance with the spirit of equality of opportunity. With growingemphasis on monitoring (for example, the Government has recently saidthat leading private sector organisations should adopt equality andmonitoring policies54 and the TUC has called for mandatory ethnicmonitoring on employers55) recruitment to the legal profession is likely tocome under increasing scrutiny. However, attempts to date to address theissue by seeking to raise awareness of the business case for genderequality56 and the continuing economic argument in the context of racediscrimination57 have clearly not created much of an impetus for action tocombat inequality in the legal profession. As with the wider businesscommunity, law firms may be forced to adapt in order to functioneffectively in the globalised markets in which they now operate. The
53 Trends in the Solicitors' Profession, Annual Statistical Report 1999, London, The Law Society,Research and Policy Planning Unit.
54 The Government's response (July 1999) to the Better Regulation Task Force Report, May 199955 Qualifying for racism, Trades Union Congress Report, January 200056 C. McGlynn, "Where men still rule", The Times, 22 April 1997.57 According to Andrea Callendar, director of Race for Opportunity, part of the Business in the
Community Campaign: It's not a question of charity but a hard business case. The ethnicminority spend is over £14bn a year so it can't be ignored.
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"globalisation" of legal services and the recent examples of law firmsmerging to create large transatlantic firms may provide greater stimulus forchange.58 Samir Shah OBE, chairman of the Runnymede Trust recently said:"The globalised economy is witnessing profound changes in the nature ofmultinational corporations and it is clearly vital that their workforces—especially at senior levels—reflect the full diversity of the worlds in whichthey now operate."59 However, as far as the legal profession is concerned,in the current social and political climate, perhaps the most powerfulimpact on equality of opportunity will result from the threat of adversepublicity.60 As Makbool Javaid, head of the discrimination law unit atsolicitors Dibb Lupton Alsop points out: "Companies can be forced to payunlimited damages. But the adverse publicity has an economic value. Thinkof Ford and you think of racism at Dagenham."61 It maybe that the legalprofession will be forced to introduce some of the measures to combatdiscrimination adopted by the banking industry. A number of banks haveset trends showing that they have taken the issue of equality seriously andare proving to be fair in their recruitment and promotion. For instance,Lloyds TSB had a one-in-five ethnic minority graduate intake this year,compared with a one in eight ratio among all graduates. Andrew Wakelin,the bank's equal opportunities consultant for race, says the policy camefrom the top. He stated: "We need ethnic diversity to reflect our customermix. And graduates start on managerial grade so the changes are fast."Lloyds TSB did not set quotas. Instead it decided to "understand theissues". "We stretched our recruitment to newer universities in cities suchas Birmingham, Leeds, Leicester and London. Wfe put many more blackfaces in literature."62 Whether the legal profession will adopt this particularstrategy and stretch its recruitment to newer universities remains to beseen. The information produced by this research shows that such a movewould represent a considerable shift from current practices.
58 For example, results from a survey of the FTSE top 100 companies, commissioned by theRunnymede Trust, found that black African and Caribbean communities experience evengreater under-representation at senior levels compared to other ethnic minority groups. Thereport claims that racial equality is not perceived as a business issue by many companies and,until it is, these organisations will keep it very firmly in the "nice to do" category, rather thanallocating appropriate resources towards addressing the issue.
59 The Guardian, 15 January 2000.60 Recent examples of such adverse publicity can be seen in the widespread media coverage of
the tribunal claims of sexual harassment against a top Cameron McKenna lawyer (see TheLawyer passim) and in the publicity given to the finding of unlawful discrimination on the partof the Lord Chancellor Coker v. Lord Chancellor [1999] IRLR 396.
61 The Guardian, 18 December 1999.62 NatWest is also more aware that it must do more or risk losing customers to ethnic minority
e-banking. It tries to match staff with local populations to improve language and culturecomprehension. The Guardian, 18 December 1999.
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Conclusions
We set out to see whether data from employers would explain theapparently inexplicable, namely the apparent preference of the professionfor CPE entrants over law graduates which so upsets Professor Birks andother academic lawyers, but which appears to have persisted throughoutthe 1990s, and also to explore some of the equal opportunities issuesthrown up by this.
Our data shows that our survey population has a fairly clear idea ofwhat it wants. This can basically be summed up in the phrase "GoodStudents from Good Universities".
• Good Students have an upper second in a coherent (single or jointhonours) and respectable (with a strong bias to the humanities)subject.
• A Good University is Oxbridge or a Redbrick.
At a presentation of an earlier draft of this paper63 a member of theaudience suggested that this might simply be a reflection of the backgroundof the respondents and they were looking to replicate themselves and theirattitudes. This may be so, although there are other arguments. There areobjective reasons for these preferences. These universities are able to selectthe best-qualified students and consistently top league tables for excellenceof resources. They also offer traditional single and joint honours courses.
If, as they claim, employers are seeking students with the bestintellectual and personality attributes, it is not all that surprising that theylook where they do, although they may be accused of conservatism ofthought, and in particular of failing to recognise the ability of thosestudents who have developed strongly during their education at a lessgood university. The PGDL students at Nottingham Law School are not byany means a typical group, but they do graphically illustrate this strongpreference. If, of course the preferred universities recruit disproportionatelyfrom the privately educated, white, middle class students on offer, this willinevitably give this group a privileged entree to the legal profession,irrespective of whether the seemingly lax equal opportunities policies stillapparently in place fail to do their job. Working class and ethnic minoritystudents will simply not get past initial hurdles based on degree class and(more importantly) university of origin. We did not see anything to accountfor a prejudice in favour of CPE students. They seem, on balance, to havemore of the required qualities than law graduates do, but only slightly, andour respondents seemed to value a "full" legal education. The conclusionmust be that law graduates with lower seconds and/or from unfavoured
63 At the LERP (Legal Education Research Project) Conference, Manchester MetropolitanUniversity 25 February 2000.
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universities are seen as less eligible for those reasons. The principal way tosecure entry to the profession on merit would seem to be continued effortsby the favoured universities to offer places (especially in law) to workingclass and ethnic minority students who are appropriately qualified, and aconcerted effort to secure proper recognition of the quality of thosecurrently unfavoured law schools which can actually produce goodgraduates by way of inclusive access policies, i.e. both enabling the mostmeritorious candidates to join the ranks of "Good Students" and seeking toredefine what are "Good Universities". What will not do is to cut off thesupply of "Good Students" from the CPE in the hope that this will openthe way for currently unfavoured law graduates. The profession is morelikely to look further afield for "Good Students" or more likely "GoodLawyers" from other jurisdictions in what is becoming a global profession.
Acknowledgements
This project forms part of the Association of Law Teachers' ongoingresearch into legal education at all levels in all institutions on Britain. Inaddition to the research, the Legal Education Research Project (LERP) whichwas set up in 1991 provides a forum to develop and exchange ideas and toshare expertise. We wish to thank the Directors of LERP, Professor PatriciaLeighton and Professor Phil Harris, for their support and enthusiasm at allstages of this research. Our thanks also go to the SPTL and in particularClare McGlynn of Newcastle University and to Chris Ryan of CityUniversity who acted as "liaison officers" for their advice and assistance atthe research design and development stage of the project. They providedvaluable advice and guidance in defining the scope of the project and indeveloping the research questions. We also wish to express our thanks toNick Dearden, the LERP Project Co-ordinator who has assisted throughoutthe project. Finally, we wish to express our gratitude to Nottingham LawSchool for its generous support in producing the questionnaire and inarranging for its distribution.
