Was it wannabe solicitor’s class action threat wot won it?
King’s College has abandoned its pretentious plan to ditch the “college” from its name and rebrand as King’s London — following a campaign against the move which included a class action threat by a wannabe solicitor at the institution.
Fittingly, it was the Facebook page set up to garner support for the legal action which broke the news an hour ago.
Since then King’s students have been tweeting screenshots of an email they received informing them the move is off.
Bloody silly "King's London" plan scrapped. Thank goodness. pic.twitter.com/5jjCC7Cz5T
— Ellabell (@missellabell) January 19, 2015
The student behind the mooted class action was Filippo Barrera, who is studying politics and is planning to undertake the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) next year.
He began steps to take King’s College to court last month after the Russell Group institution announced that it was planning to undergo the expensive re-brand. He argued dropping “college” would lower the esteem in which King’s is held, telling Legal Cheek:
“The reason I started [the class action] is that I think there are grounds for compensation if they follow through — no matter how democratic the decision is. Re-naming, re-branding or whatever they call it damages us economically.”
The view that the move was unnecessary was compounded among law students when King’s was crowned top uni law faculty for research ahead of UCL, LSE and Oxbridge.