ClickAJob News

London's law firms are focusing on a new diversity recruitment drive, it has emerged.

A new summer school has been set up at Imperial College London to target those who think they are not good enough to enter the profession, with the aim that a wider range of candidates will apply for future legal positions, Legal Week reports.

The money for the drive has been put forward by 13 top firms in London, including Allen & Overy, Ashurst, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith, Linklaters, Lovells and Slaughter and May.

Geoffrey Green, a senior partner at Ashurst, commented that companies are not getting to see some of the potential lawyers at universities around the UK.

"There is a real untapped source of intelligent people at new universities who we simply do not get to see," he said to the publication.

"We need to change this," he added.

As firms normally recruit from the Russell Group of universities, this initiative is focused on opening up the legal arena to a more diverse set of candidates.

ClickAJob chief executive Yngve Traberg welcomes the move.

"There is a huge resource of capable people out there, many of whom are not confident about their potential and not really aiming high enough," he says.

"Undergraduates really owe it to themselves to test where their career strengths are," he points out. "It stimulates their initiative, widens their perspective and provides sharper direction for their studies."

Where schools or universities do not provide career guidance tests, students can access them online, providing themselves with a career objective based on achievable possibilities instead of limiting themselves to personal whim, Mr Traberg remarks.

"Students need the confidence of worth and capability to be sure their efforts will succeed.

"Educational institutions have a huge responsibility to ensure their students focus properly on their post-grad employment future right throughout the educational process." he notes.

He continues: "Ensuring students receive qualified advice and exposure to relevant work experience will also ensure a flow of candidates into professions like law.

"The more work experience the legal industry can offer, the greater the opportunity for a whole new set of candidates to contribute to the future of Law in Britain," Mr Traberg concludes.