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You can have rubbish A-levels and still succeed in legal profession

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By Judge John Hack on

Legal Cheek Twitter hash tag generates rush of proud responses from those who pissed about at school but still became lawyers

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Newbie law students may be cracking the cider bottles to celebrate their exam results, but do A-levels really mean that much in the modern legal profession recruitment game?

Graduate recruitment specialists tell Legal Cheek that even the top law firms are increasingly moving away from a forensic distillation of A-level results. They are far more interested in breaking down specific law degree module performance.

Indeed, university results are what matters — at least on the solicitor side of the profession. Top-flight Square Mile recruitment specialists indicate that a first-class degree from even a mediocre university will trump a “Desmond” (or for those born in the 1990s, a 2.2) from Oxbridge and an upper second from a Russell Group law faculty.

While that approach is not as prevalent at chambers — most pupillage committees still cast an eye over A-level results — it is gradually seeping into bar recruitment policies as well.

And as Legal Cheek’s Twitter hashtag (#LawyersWithRubbishAlevels) today showed, even lawyers from past generations have managed to overcome “rubbish” A-level results and achieve success in the legal profession.

Top marks (as it were) went to Stefan Cross QC. The solicitor silk informed us that he bagged an A-level “Auntie” (er … that’s BBC).

Another well known criminal law specialist — barrister turned solicitor-advocate Nicholas Diable — put his hands up to kipping through A-levels, ending up with a BED.

And bollicks A-levels also don’t seem to be an automatic block to nailing down a judicial appointment, as @BrummyBar points out.

Here’s a selection of other lawyers who battled into the profession despite spending a fair bit of time puffing on the fags round the bike sheds.