City partnerships: study finds most top legal positions still go to the privately educated

The old school tie still dominates at City law firms, the bar and the judiciary, according to research released this week.


A study by the Sutton Trust found that even the younger partners at top law firms are drawn overwhelmingly from a private school background. An analysis of the educational background of 522 partners from magic circle firms Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance and Slaughter and May revealed that some 71% of young partners - those younger than 39 - attended a fee-paying school.


It revealed that more state school graduates were recruited in the late 1980s, only for access to narrow again.


Only 45% of partners across all age groups at the firms were educated in the state sector, compared to 93% of the population as a whole. Of those state-educated partners, only 24% had attended comprehensive, rather than selective, schools.


Oxford and Cambridge graduates also comprise 53% of partners, the study showed. However, there is some evidence of a gradual dilution of Oxbridge dominance, with only 47% of younger partners having attended either of the two universities. Just over a quarter of the partners graduated from another top-12 university, while only 21% came from outside the top 12.


Slaughter and May partner Graham White insisted that the firm does not discriminate against people from any background.


He said: 'The figures do not tally with our own analysis.'


More than two-thirds of barristers, and three out of four judges in the High Court or above, were educated in the private sector - statistics that have seen little change in the last 15 years, according to the trust. Half of the judges attended boarding schools, which educate less than 1% of children.


Both the judiciary and bar overwhelmingly favour Oxbridge graduates, the research showed, making up 82% of barristers at leading chambers and 81% of judges.


Yvonne Brown, chairwoman of the Black Solicitors Network, said: 'Sadly, what the figures suggest is that although some doors may be opening to people who have not traditionally worked in the City, there are larger doors opening to those from a private school background.'


Caroline Herbert, chairwoman of the Law Society's diversity and equality committee, added: 'There is an unofficial quota regime in the City for graduates from Oxford and Cambridge and the other top universities, which is unfair. Firms believe the commercial reality is that people from a certain background will have access to the clients that will make them richer.'


Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance did not provide a comment.