AAB requirement no longer applies, confirms City law firm sponsor
The ‘Law Undergraduate of the Year’ competition has ditched its minimum A-level requirement after a storm of anger in the legal Twittersphere.
The furore began on Saturday when Birkbeck College professor Matthew Weait spotted that the competition included a condition barring from entry anyone without at least two As and a B at A-level.
And it continued this morning when Weait tweeted his email of complaint (pictured below) about the clause to the competition’s sponsor, Mayer Brown.
As Weait points out, a minimum A-level requirement could indirectly indiscriminate against clever students who didn’t go to great schools but went on to do well at university.
Happily for wannabe lawyers of this ilk, Mayer Brown moved swiftly today to remove the requirement. A spokeswoman for the firm told Legal Cheek:
“The intention was for the competition to mirror our criteria for vac scheme entrants generally. We would like to make clear that there is no minimum A-level requirement. While most of our trainees have at least AAB we actively seek to recruit talented candidates who are on course to get a good degree via another route.”
She added that the firm’s commitment to diversity is underlined by its ongoing ‘CV Blind’ graduate recruitment pilot.
The closing date for entries to the ‘Law Undergraduate of the Year’ competition — which is run by recruitment company Target Jobs — is 4 February 2015.