"[1], In 2013, The Lawyer argued that Clifford Chance and Slaughter and May should no longer form part of the Magic Circle. 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). Get on a law firm work experience programme. The term has also been used to describe the most prestigious barristers' chambers in London. ORW. Is Clifford Chance the law firm for you? For example, Leicester runs a very well-regarded law degree, and so has a strong showing. It merged with Bruckhaus Westrick Heller Lober and Deringer Tessin Herrmann & Sedemund in 2000; Relevant experience in one or more of their practice areas. All the resources you need to research law firms and barristers' chambers, which struggle themselves with a bias towards the privileged. City firms are either more selective, or targeted more heavily by Russell Group students. We interviewed a sample of 7000 (exactly!) Initially coined in the early 1990s, the Magic Circle is a collective term used to describe what many consider to be the leading UK-headquartered law firms - Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Linklaters and Slaughter and May. This cookie is native to PHP applications. Each trainee told us where they completed their undergraduate degrees. 999tigger. They are way more likely to make it to the top of such firms than graduates of Newcastle, Liverpool, Cardiff, Queens Belfast and Queen Mary University of London, which each account for just 1% of Russell Group partners. Magic/Silver Circle law firms often require you to have a minimum of AAB at A-level. 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. DLA Piper, Eversheds, Shoosmiths, Trowers & Hamlins. The subject that was studied can influence how a university appears. And how can you get to work for them? 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Quiz, 12 Pro Interview Tips from a Magic Circle Partner, Clifford Chance Interview: From Trainee to Associate, Freshfields training contract recruiter interview, Why You Should Choose a Regional Office Training Contract, Five days of paid work experience to SPARK your law career, Interview with a STEM Trainee Associate at Herbert Smith Freehills, Students currently in their penultimate year of study, finalists and graduates of all degree disciplines, 2021/2022/2023 (March & September intakes), Penultimate or final year students; graduates, 1987, by merger of Clifford Turner and Coward Chance, 8000 (London), 7000 (outside of London), Weeks commencing 13 January and 27 January 2020, You can only apply for SPARK if you are in your first year or the second year of a four year course, Penultimate and final year law students; law graduates; GDL graduates, Winter Training Contract (Law and Non-Law), Final year law students; law graduates; final year non-law students; non-law graduates, 8000 (in London), 7000 (outside of London), Penultimate and final year law or non-law students; law or non-law graduates; law or non-law postgraduates, 1889, by William Capel Slaughter and William May, BPP University, London Waterloo + GDL Extra Programme, Law students in the penultimate year of their undergraduate degree and law students in the second year of a four year course who will be going abroad in their third year. We found that universities like Northumbria, Kent, Reading, UEA and UWE played a much greater role in supplying trainees to national and regional firms. This page was last edited on 19 January 2023, at 22:04. What happens if i dont get my A-level predicted grades for Rice University? You can find all of the answers to these questions using our free guide start reading below! 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. If you're currently studying at a non-Russell Group university, do not be discouraged by this report. US law firms in London drew 24.4 per cent of their trainees from Oxbridge, with 50 per cent coming from the rest of the Russell Group, 16.5 per cent coming from other UK institutions and nine per cent coming from overseas. The ANONCHK cookie, set by Bing, is used to store a user's session ID and also verify the clicks from ads on the Bing search engine. Take our new Which Magic Circle Law Firm is Right For Me? Freshfields and Allen & Overy now boast similar numbers of ranked partners to Clifford Chance, whose historic focus on the US market, including its merger with New York-based Rogers & Wells in 2000, had seen it edge ahead of its compatriots in the Magic Circle. Nearly one in four of our London interviewees had an Oxbridge degree. It is worth doing some research to see if this is an option for you. Magic Circle (law firms) - Wikipedia For example, Manchester and Nottinghams undergrad enrolments are over three times the size of St Andrews. Take our new Which Magic Circle Law Firm is Right For Me? These results mostly relate to the larger commercial firms that take part in our guide. 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. PDF What counts as a 'good' university if I want to be a solicitor? Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. Linklaters. PGDL? Below are the 30 universities that were most frequently cited. BTEC Business Unit 6 (Principles or Management) May 2nd Resit (2023), Which poems from love and relationships should i memorise? We could stop our investigation right here: the law is demanding, intellectually rigorous and it needs capable graduates see graph. Who are the Silver Circle Law Firms? The further down you go, the more erratic it becomes. To put it in the same category as Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters would be inaccurate, and to say it is in a class of its own is frankly showing the firm too much deference. The Student Room and The Uni Guide are both part of The Student Room Group. Key differences between Magic Circle Law firms - Bright Network But even these firms do not specify a particular university. Recruiters will overlook you in favour of those who've been on it and performed well no matter what university they've attended. Revealed: the universities which give you the best chance of making it 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. London is at about $900,000 and New York's RPL is about $1.1 million. Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. But this ranking doesn't reveal the full story. [12], UK law firms, including Magic Circle law firms, have experienced increased competition from US law firms both domestically (from US law firms with a UK presence) and internationally.[16][17][18]. This cookies is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos. Amlaw 100 Amlaw 200 Global 200 NLJ 500 A-List Diversity Scorecard Go-to Law Schools . [1] The Club of Nine was an informal group of law firms that comprised Allen & Overy; Clifford Chance; Freshfields (now Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer); Herbert Smith (now Herbert Smith Freehills); Linklaters; Lovells (now Hogan Lovells); Norton Rose (now Norton Rose Fulbright); Slaughter and May; and Stephenson Harwood. US is pretty obvious except in cases where there was a transatlantic merger; wed still consider Hogan Lovells, NRF and BCLP City firms because of their strong London origins. Oxford, Cambridge and definitely Durham dont have big legal markets. We wouldnt recommend making life choices based only on these figures, though. The coloured arrows indicate rises or falls compared to our 2012 survey. Mad-Mullah. Slaughter and May. And the mix was refreshingly eclectic: one of our interviewees had originally trained as a vet at the Royal Veterinary College; another was a musician who'd earned a degree at Trinity College of Music; and a couple had explored their artistic interests at the Courtauld Institute. The figures were compiled by the Chambers Student Guide from interviews with 2,500 trainee lawyers over the last three years. 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. In all, 83 UK universities were represented in our sample an encouraging 14% increase on the total in ourprevious 2012 report, signalling attempts to attract more diverse candidates. 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. This will skew the results in favour of the larger, less specialist institutions. Boost your law career for free. Sign up to our regular updates! Firms are increasingly employing a more holistic approach to each application, meaning that they will consider applications from a range of candidates on an individual basis. It sets a unique ID to embed videos to the website. Number of Individuals Rankings in Chambers USA. Those who argue that both university admissions and law firm hiring is meritocratic should take a look at our School Backgrounds of Trainees report, which showed that an undeniable bias towards privately educated graduates exists in the profession. We also encountered more overseas graduates than we did across the separate regions. Used by Microsoft as a unique identifier. TSR Decisions Drop In 17th April - 5th May. This survey doesnt account for the numbers graduating from each institution. 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. The Times, historically the newspaper best-read among members of the legal profession, reports today that Macfarlanes has become the first City law firm outside the so-called Magic Circle to pay . It is also worth pointing out that different firms have different strengths, and thus do not all need the same type of candidate. Almost a third of trainee lawyers at elite Magic Circle law firms We then combined this with our data all the way back to 2010, when most of the current. Oxford and Cambridge moved down the chart in all areas (and sometimes disappeared from it altogether). What are you looking for? [1], The Silver Circle is an informal term for perceived elite corporate law firms headquartered in the United Kingdom that are the main competitors for the Magic Circle in the United Kingdom. They are the five UK-based firms considered to be amongst the most prestigious in the world. Here are the 55 universities in the UK and the Republic of Ireland which came up in our sample outside of our top 30, in alphabetical order: Together, trainees from these universities represented 3.1% of the sample. Russel Group universities were strongly represented, accounting for 81.4% of trainee interviewees, with 5.3% having studied at the University of Bristol . Clifford Chance. The remaining Russell Group universities were also represented strongly, while interviewees from other UK universities were comparatively low. It does not correspond to any user ID in the web application and does not store any personally identifiable information. This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. According to Bloomberg . This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. The research shows 76 per cent of trainee lawyers at the UKs leading 139 law firms are Oxbridge and Russell Group graduates. See more. During my Year 13 work experience, I spoke to trainee solicitors at LinkLaters & Clifford Chance; both people seemed very normal, in fact they actually appeared to be fairly shy when I was talking to them. 1. 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. They are the five UK-based firms considered to be amongst the most prestigious in the world. For example, Manchester and Nottinghams undergrad enrolments are much higher than that of St Andrews. [1] Generally, the Magic Circle firms have among the highest earnings-per-partner and earnings-per-lawyer of UK-headquartered law firms. Allen & Overy. A second group comprising Bristol, Nottingham and Durham made up 16% of all trainees in our research. 5 Types of City Law Firms You Need to Know | The Lawyer Portal The Silicon Valley outpost is headed by Chambers-ranked capital markets attorney Sarah Solum, who arrived from Davis Polk, and includes highly rated securities litigation partners Boris Feldman and Doru Gavril from Wilson Sonsini, up-and-coming corporate attorney John Fisher from Sidley Austin and Latham & Watkins' employee benefits partner Maj Vaseghi. Durham is the best out of your choices, but all will be fine, all are Russell Group and are visited by the magic circle firms. Incidentally, Oxford (24%) did better than Cambridge (20%). What Are the Magic Circle Law Firms? | The Lawyer Portal Quiz now! According to the data, 31.4 per cent of trainee lawyers at Londons elite Magic Circle firms Linkaters, Slaughter and May, Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer went to Oxbridge. 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. The university superduo dominated the US and magic circle firms in particular: 24% of all US firm trainees and 31% of all magic circle trainees hailed . GCSE AQA LIT. 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.