magic circle law firms' preferred universities

US firms in London had the highest percentage of Oxbridge and overseas graduates in the entire survey. Follow us for breaking news and latest updates, The Trend Micro Cybersecurity Knowledge Hub, 10 services and companies to help grow your business, Slaughter and May boosts pay packet for newly qualified solicitors to 100,000 as Magic Circle pay war rages, Freshfields increases partner pay to 1.84m. Submit. But this ranking doesn't reveal the full story. This survey gives the real story on entry requirements. Before we launch into the results, a few points to bear in mind: We haven't interviewed every trainee that's passed through the system over the last three years: for our research we contacted a sample from each firm. The schemes gave me invaluable insight into working in a law firm, and the different practice areas that were on offer. But which universities do Magic Circle Firms really recruit from? DLA Piper, Eversheds, Shoosmiths, Trowers & Hamlins. If youre an aspiring solicitor, youve almost certainly heard of the Magic Circle law firms. If you're considering where to complete your undergraduate degree, do not let the results of this report override key considerations: a particular course youre passionate about; doors open to you by pursuing a certain course; a locations appeal and the accompanying cost of living; how close by your parents should be; the social life and your general happiness. The research shows 76 per cent of trainee lawyers at the UKs leading 139 law firms are Oxbridge and Russell Group graduates. Out of all the Oxford and Cambridge graduates we interviewed, over 80% bagged a contract at a City firm. Can you do anything with a 2:1 in Oxford law? This cookie is set by linkedIn. Just take a look at our table below: What do they look for in Allen & Overy training contract candidates? Who has been hit hardest by 21bn of pandemic fraud, and will the taxpayer EVER get it back? Indeed, before its launch in the Silicon Valley, Freshfields' East Coast hires included the attention-grabbing addition of Ethan Klingsberg, a highly rated M&A partner from Cleary Gottlieb, and Willkie Farr securities litigator Mary Eaton, both of whom are ranked in the Chambers USA 2021 Guide, as well as adding employee benefits expert Lori Goodman from Latham & Watkins and hiring antitrust duo Meghan Rissmiller from Hogan Lovells and Julie Elmer from the US Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. And how can you get to work for them? This is no surprise given the dominance of the duo in academia. and "At the end of the day we see ourselves as one of the leading global law firms, not one of the leading Magic Circle firms". But the highest salaries in the business and top-notch commercial work also demand stamina and an appetite for long hours and hard work, more than any other city. At the time, these firms were Allen & Overy; Clifford Chance; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; Linklaters; and Slaughter and May. It shows that a whopping 44% of partners at firms in the magic and silver circle attended Oxbridge, while 34% went to one of the 22 other Russell Group universities, and 22% graduated from a non-Russell Group uni. Or a Magic Circle partner salary? I also emphasise neal95's post on choice of unis too. The term has also been used to describe the most prestigious barristers' chambers in London. This cookie is set by doubleclick.net. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Participating firms represent the more competitive half of the market: combined their trainee vacancies amount to over 2,500, which is over half all trainee positions going each year. Do I need a law degree to get into the magic circle? Types of law firm and their preferred universities. Note the success of LSE which makes it onto the table every year but one. Allen & Overy. It's the full package that recruiters are after: the more you prove you can offer that, the less your university will matter. E.g. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. The majority of our trainee interviewees 81.4% hailed from a Russell Group university. Our graph below makes no distinction between UK and non-UK citizens. The latter two are the only universities outside of England to rank at all. Prestigious law firms lock their gaze on graduates from these prestigious universities, knowing they dont have to look far for the brightest and most driven candidates. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Thats up from 85 in our 2013-2015 research and from 76 in our 2010-2012 research. What's more, such large law firms usually give their employees a narrower remit - meaning that they suit those who are certain of their preferred specialism. This cookie is used by vimeo to collect tracking information. The Super Boutique law firms comprise Cravath, Swaine & Moore; Sullivan & Cromwell; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Slaughter and May; and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Big Three law firms, an informal term for leading law firms in New Zealand. The purpose of this cookie is to synchronize the ID across many different Microsoft domains to enable user tracking. This information is used to compile report and improve site. What do they look for in Slaughter and May training contract candidates? We found that universities like Northumbria, Kent, Reading, UEA and UWE played a much greater role in supplying trainees to national and regional firms. Eight musts for training contract applications, How to succeed at interviews and assessment days, True confessions of a training contract applicant. The coloured arrows indicate rises or falls compared to our 2012 survey. It is worth doing some research to see if this is an option for you. 76.5% of trainees at the leading 130+ firms are Oxbridge and Russell Group graduates, London universities topple Oxbridge for graduate earnings in law, Non-law graduates earn 6% more than law grads, Regional firms prefer regional universities. Other firms have since followed suit, in a bid to help remove bias from the process and allow recruiters to focus solely on an individual's qualities and responses. The __gads cookie, set by Google, is stored under DoubleClick domain and tracks the number of times users see an advert, measures the success of the campaign and calculates its revenue. [1] In 1996, Stephenson Harwood was asked to leave the Club of Nine due to its stagnant performance, and the Club was disbanded in 2000. There are grads from Oxbridge, Durham, Nottingham, Brum, Cardiff, Bristol, Leeds, UCL, LSE, Kings, Sheffield, York, Newcastle, Exeter and tons more from different universities within the UK working at top law firms. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. [4][5] In 2017 The Lawyer magazine stated that it no longer considers Slaughter and May to form part of the Magic Circle due to its lower revenues and UK domestic focus. But read on and the analysis by recruiter Laurence Simons of 1,147 senior lawyers LinkedIn profiles reveals that some Russell Group universities produce massively more leading City firm partners than others. YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video. Furthermore, given some suggestions that Clifford Chance and Linklaters will follow their compatriots' lead in stateside expansion, alongside the novel options for local hiring and remote work in the post-pandemic world, it appears that this trend will only continue going forwards. Some firms may specify a strong 2:1, which is generally seen as achieving between 65-70%. But that doesn't mean, say, an Imperial chemistry graduate would be less likely to get a training contract than a Nottingham geography graduate. At these firms, we spoke to graduates of 36 universities. Number of Individuals Rankings in Chambers USA. Sign up for our newsletter to boost your commercial awareness. Career change to Law contemplationwill I be too old at 33? But even these firms do not specify a particular university. Wondering what the salary is like for a Magic Circle trainee? Moreover, all four Magic Circle firms with US-based operations continue to increase their presence in the 2021 Guide, notably, in areas beyond their traditional areas of expertise in cross-Atlantic transactional and regulatory mandates. There are also a number of options now available at some firms which do not follow the traditional training contract route. You can accept or reject cookies which are not essential for the site to work by clicking on the Cookie settings below. London is a global legal hub only rivalled by New York. This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. Arguably for this reason, it was not included in the initial Magic Circle. [2], The Magic Circle has been termed a "journalistic device, coined by legal reporters in the wake of the break-up of its predecessor, the 'Club of Nine'". how they beat every UK university in the salaries table, To find out about qualifying as a lawyer from overseas, read on>>. As a result, there are certain universities that you won't find mentioned here (such as Wolverhampton, Glamorgan, Birmingham City etc..) Their absence doesn't mean that these universities failed to produce any trainees in three years just that we didn't encounter any in our interviews. Choosing a University Other Things to Consider. From Jamaica to Australia, from Brazil to Ukraine: our interviewees in this category came from all over the world. Want a more specific insight into each of these firms? Sal Francis Morton, senior research analyst at Chambers Student Guide, said: Law firms lock their gaze on graduates from these prestigious universities, knowing they dont have to look far for the brightest and most driven candidates. Everyone on TSR seems to go to Oxbridge, except a couple went to Oxford Brookes and Kings College. Oxfords graduates earned an average 71,120, Kings College London graduates 74,512, University College London graduates 72,814 and Cambridge graduates 72,457. Clifford Chance. NQuids inThe university you attend does determine your employability and earning power, but prestige isnt everything, as a glance at this table below will show. To find out about qualifying as a lawyer from overseas, read on>>, City (above including the magic circle and US firms): firms focused on City business sectors, such as finance, capital markets, corporate transactions, investment, insurance, energy. The term 'silver circle' implies there should be a golden shape before it. [3], In 2014, it was reported that Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer wished to discard its Magic Circle designation in the US in favour of being part of the Global Elite. Career change to Law contemplationwill I be too old at 33? This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The grades you have achieved and your overall academic standard is more important than the university you attend. Quiz now! These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. Travers Smith, Herbert Smith Freehills, London refers to firms that are London-based and dealing with mid-sized organisations usually doing anything other than global corporate finance sectors like IP, media, real estate, human rights, employment, personal injury, public law. Slaughter and May. London's total profit went from over 150% of New York's in . If your university isn't ranked highly on our charts, or doesn't appear at all, don't despair: it's likely that graduates from this particular institution have had greater success bagging training contracts at smaller firms. [3], In 2004, Slaughter and May's then senior partner, Tim Clark, said: "It's a funny concept. 1. Since our last report in 2016, we've interviewed 2,500 trainees. Considered the oldest international law firm in the world; Original partner Samuel Dodd was appointed solicitor to the Bank of England Freshfields have continued to be the legal advisor to the bank ever since; Appointed the first legal services provider to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. magic circle law firms, I was surprised to see LSE placed quite low. They will be in touch with you soon! In the world of Commercial Law, you will often hear talk of 'Magic Circle' firms. Although Russell Group candidates currently dominate the universities which lawyers at Magic Circle firms recruit from, you do not need to attend one of these universities to secure a position at a Magic Circle Firm. The figures were compiled by the Chambers Student Guide from interviews with 2,500 trainee lawyers over the last three years. For those in their first-year of uni, now is the time to start thinking about getting . Used by Microsoft Advertising as a unique ID for visitors. Our interviewees came from a total of 88 universities over the past three years. It merged with Bruckhaus Westrick Heller Lober and Deringer Tessin Herrmann & Sedemund in 2000; Relevant experience in one or more of their practice areas. One of my distant relatives is a director at one of the Magic Circle Law Firms, however I am yet to contact them regarding it. If, for example, you have mitigating circumstances which have affected your academic performance, a firm will take these into consideration during the application process. Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". This might reassure the non-law grads that theyre not starting their careers on the back foot, and should certainly encourage wavering GDL applicants. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the website is doing. We meet many law firms at far-flung universities and can see the efforts they make to get in front of a diverse student group. It really isn't about uni, firms want to distance themselves from the oxbridge stereotype and simply want the best candidates regardless of who is awarding your degree Barristers from it worked on 64 matters for the Magic Circle law firms since 2015. Quiz now! You'll be familiar with this declaration from poring over law firms' grad recruitment pages. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. Chambers Student, the students companion to the legal profession, gives the truth about law firms and the Bar. So this analysis isnt definitive, but our sample size is significant and indicative of broad recruitment trends. When we overlay the two graphs, City and non-City, on top of each other, we see regional firms showing less of a penchant for any particular university. [8][9][10][11], Among the large firms not included in the term are Herbert Smith Freehills; Hogan Lovells; Norton Rose Fulbright; and Stephenson Harwood, which are less profitable. This cookie is set by Facebook to display advertisements when either on Facebook or on a digital platform powered by Facebook advertising, after visiting the website. [12] These firms have a lower turnover than the members of the Magic Circle, but consistently have an average profits per equity partner (PEP) and average revenue per lawyer (RPL) far above the UK average[13][14][15] (and, in some instances, higher than members of the Magic Circle). You don't have to go to a top university (and by your definition the 'only top unis are Oxbridge') to work at a top law firm. At most firms youll meet a balance of law and non-law grads. The Student Room and The Uni Guide are trading names of The Student Room Group Ltd. Register Number: 04666380 (England and Wales), VAT No. A firm that has a high regional strength, for example, may be more inclined to hire a graduate from a local university and most of the applicants to that firm may, inevitably, be from the local area and may have attended a local university. Sign up to our regular updates! At some of the biggest and most prestigious firms in London seemingly the preserve of the university elite we encountered trainees with degrees from non-traditional institutions like Brunel, Keele and Hertfordshire. (Part 2), Shared bathrooms student accommodation Southampton. Below is a chart of the top 20 most common universities that cropped up in our research over the past nine years. I am sharing my experience in the hopes that I can aid aspiring lawyers and support others in taking advantage of similar opportunities. Oxbridge dominates, but there are some surprises. The trope explained above that in the eyes of the more prestige-obsessed graduate, London is the be-all and end-all is visible here. 80 universities were mentioned by non-City trainees compared to just 67 mentioned by their City counterparts. Over three years, we have interviewed roughly 20% of all trainees in England and Wales. There is a 25% difference with regard to Revenue Per Lawyer. We interview a random selection of trainees at 125 law firms. Kings - English law and French law degree, Law Applicants 2023 entry - discussion thread, HKU-UCL, KCL-CUHK, Exeter-CUHK Law interviews, Cambridge Sixth Form Law Conference 2023 (CSFLC). Trinity College Dublin was the most commonly attended university in this entire category (putting it in the same ballpark as St Andrews, UEA and UWE). These firmscompete to pay the top salaries, outstripping the magic circle firms, while the style of work is not miles away from the UK elite. A natural target for go-getters London may be, but theres a mutual attraction going on. This allowed other Russell Group universities to ascend the charts: note Durham is no longer the top of the Russell Group outside the capital, giving way to Manchester. Below are the 30 universities that were most frequently cited. The International Business law firms comprise CMS; Ashurst; Baker McKenzie; DLA Piper; Hogan Lovells; Jones Day; King & Wood Mallesons and Norton Rose Fulbright. InvestmentBankin. Kings - English law and French law degree, Law Applicants 2023 entry - discussion thread, HKU-UCL, KCL-CUHK, Exeter-CUHK Law interviews, Cambridge Sixth Form Law Conference 2023 (CSFLC). Don't get lazy and assume you've made it: the name of your university is not an elixir that will impel recruiters to hand you a training contract. While Magic Circle firms have long been considered fixtures of the US legal market since opening their doors in New York almost half a century ago, the recent glut of hiring and lateral expansion can be seen as an acceleration of these firms' attempts to crack the US market in a much bigger and more eye-catching way. Magic/Silver Circle law firms often require you to have a minimum of AAB at A-level. Also, at the time the term was coined, the corporate practice at Herbert Smith (as it was known pre-merger) was focused on privatisation work, which had dried up. London School of Economics and the School of Oriental and African Studies were next, with graduates earning an average of 86,885 and 80,972 respectively. The firm was swiftly joined on the Pacific Coast by Magic Circle rival Allen & Overy, which burnished its signature credentials in complex financing work through the addition of a renewables-focused project finance team from Akin Gump in Los Angeles, including ranked partners Daniel Sinaiko, Matthew Nesburn and Andrea Wang Lucan, as well as adding the highly-rated John Marciano in Washington, DC. All legal teams work best with the variety of perspectives both groups bring. It is the Overseas students were the top earners, according to the research, with an average newly qualified salary of 88,384. [1], In contrast to the Club of Nine, the Magic Circle is no informal grouping of law firms. If you've got legal ambitions, our partner, The University of Law, has the right event for you. Almost a third of lawyers at the UKs elite Magic Circle law firms attended Oxford or Cambridge universities, new data published today shows. This cookie is a browser ID cookie set by Linked share Buttons and ad tags. While that's a small portion of the overall number of interviewees, the point is that graduates from these universities were still able to get training contracts. I assume this is because the stats didn't take into account the yearly law intake for each uni, which is quite low for LSE. "[1] Then corporate partner at Herbert Smith Freehills and former investment banker Henry Raine said: "The phrase was coined by a legal magazine and referred to firms which were very strong in corporate or international work. In comparison to the overall picture of London, the top end of the market held a higher proportion of Oxbridge graduates; a similar amount from the remaining Russell Group universities; and fewer trainees from other UK institutions. What universities do Magic Circle Firms recruit from. On our D&I platform we'll be taking a thorough look at legal industry issues. Away from the capital, the configuration shifted again. We then combined this with our data all the way back to 2010, when most of the current Chambers Student research team were still gamboling about the school field in PE kit (kidding, were more the library type). The West Coast office launches, which mark the first venture into California by a member of the Magic Circle since Clifford Chance shuttered its 5-year old offices in 2007, reversed a recent trend in the London market, where expansive US-headquartered firms . Exploring trainee secondments and career moves into the Asia market. 806 8067 22 Registered Office: Imperial House, 2nd Floor, 40-42 Queens Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 3XB, Taking a break or withdrawing from your course, http://www.chambersstudent.co.uk/where-to-start/newsletter/law-firms-preferred-universities, http://www.chambersstudent.co.uk/media/1067/what_is_a_good_university.pdf. Solicitor Apprenticeships are one such example, and are an alternative to attending university, meaning that you can get started with a legal career without even attending university. Although Oxbridge students make up less than 1% of each years graduating class, they made up a whopping 15.4% of all our trainee lawyer interviewees. All the resources you need to research law firms and barristers' chambers, which struggle themselves with a bias towards the privileged. . Guys, do you prefer to be called hot or handsome? Imperial College, meanwhile, concentrates heavily on science and technology subjects and so naturally features less prominently. Got questions about the SQE? King's College London A102 GEM 2023 Entry. They are the five UK-based firms considered to be amongst the most prestigious in the world. The data below is drawn from the entirety of our research in the years 2010, 2011 and 2012. Clifford Chance, headquartered in London, is one of the world's largest law firms, both by size and revenue. For instance, Freshfields and Allen & Overy now enjoy local rankings in California, a fiercely contested market traditionally dominated by homegrown firms. Used by Microsoft as a unique identifier. The further down you go, the more erratic it becomes. See more. Will taking Further Maths as a third subject be a disadvantage to apply for uni? In 1920, Linklater & Co merged with Paines Plythe & Huxtable, a firm that had been founded by a descendent of one of the founding fathers of the United States, Thomas Paine. What sets them apart from other firms? The Global Elite law firms comprise Allen & Overy; Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton; Clifford Chance; Davis Polk & Wardwell; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; Herbert Smith Freehills; Kirkland & Ellis; White & Case; Latham & Watkins; Linklaters; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Sidley Austin; and Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Part of the Dukes Education family Together we're extraordinary. LPC? That seems big and it is but its down 5% from our previous survey of the years 2013-2015, although over nine years weve witnessed a 3% drop in the Russell Groups dominance. Advised on the first hostile takeover in the City of London; Arranged the first Eurobond in the 1960s; Introduced one of the first schemes to allow full equity partners to work part-time; First global law firm to open an office in Morocco; The only law firm to be named the most innovative in Europe by the Financial Times 3 times. We interview the trainees to get the truth about life at the major employers. Those winning a hotly contested training contract at a Magic Circle firm can expect to be richly rewarded, with all five firms increasing compensation for newly qualified lawyers to over 100,000 this summer. Subscribe to the City A.M. newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox. All of the 'Magic Circle' law firms and barristers' chambers specialise primarily in corporate law.

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