Press round-up

Questions of elitism continue to interest the media.

The Guardian (27 June) discussed City law firms' preference for graduates of certain universities: 'Clifford Chance...

recently advised law students that to get a training contract in the City, they should just go to a good university, get a 2:1 and have a fantastic personality.'The article went on to argue that students no longer want to escape home to university: 'Saving on rent by living at home and availability of part-time work are having more influence on where they study.' It went on: 'Some students fail to fulfil their potential at A level because, for example, they attend a "poor" school.'So it concluded by asking whether the City would widen its application net 'to acknowledge that for an increasing number of talented students and potential first-rate lawyers studying at a "good university" is not an option'.The Times (27 June) looked at the comparative merits of differing law schools, noting that 'trainees who have graduated from Oxbridge are ten times more likely to be based in City firms than those from elsewhere'.

The article concluded with some advice from former Law Society head of training John Randall: 'When deciding on a law school, you want to ask yourself why you want to read law in the first place.'Human rights came under scrutiny in the Independent (27 June) with a long argument opposed to international tribunals being used as a forum to bring war criminals to justice.In seeking to transfer the ideals of criminal justice 'to the international stage', the author-barrister's argument ran that 'the key issue of consent is being ignored'.

By this reckoning, 'the war crimes tribunal that has been set up in the Hague for the former Yugoslavia lacks the consent of the people in that region'.

By comparison, for the post-World War II war crimes trials, 'the Germans consented to the authority of Nuremburg'.The author finished with a dire prophecy: 'If we get it wrong by imposing simple notions of universal justice, the humanitarian disaster zones that now exist in Bosnia and Rwanda will multiply across the globe.'Closer to home, the Observer (2 July) dedicated an editorial to the state of the family courts.

'Britain has the highest divorce rate in Europe, but its legal arrangements for dealing with family breakdown are a lottery.' The merits of the cases are giving way to 'the prejudices of individual judges and welfare offices' in deciding parental access and contact with children, the Observer argued.The answer to the problem, according to the newspaper, is for judgments to be disclosed to the public: 'There is a need to re-establish public confidence that judgments are underpinned by a coherent, nationally agreed philosophy.'Meanwhile, Clifford Chance's announcement that it will give up its City base and move to Docklands in 2003 caused some comment.

The London Evening Standard (29 June) reported that the move 'will send shockwaves through the certain parts of the City that have long dismissed the Docklands development as a distant appendage to the City's beating heart'.Those seeking an escape from elitism, war and divorce could learn from the experience of solicitor/ drummer Phil Manning (London Evening Standard, 26 June).

He started at university with 'a cheapie pair of bongos' and has gone on to become a semi-professional musician with ethnic drums, congas and cymbals, hand instruments and electronic percussion.'As a member of the four-piece cabaret/function band Nightflys, he is booked for wedding receptions and other festivities,' the article noted.Managing to juggle the bongos with his legal work, Mr Manning said that the drumming 'makes me more effective in the workplace'.He explained; 'You're fiddling around with time, with different rhythm patterns, and then you are conscious that time is suspended, which can be freeing for people.' It sounds like a timesheet-aversion therapy that many a City lawyer could do with.

Jeremy Fleming