Law Student Report 2012 - Legal Week

Law Student Report 2012
Capturing the views of over 3,000 law undergraduates from the UK’s top universities (the Russell
Group) as well as Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) students from the College of Law, BPP and Kaplan,
this report identifies the reasons why students choose law as a career and how their views of law
firms develop throughout their course. This study looks at the career options considered by students,
what attracts them to law and the most powerful influences on their choice of firm. The report
reveals which forms of marketing have the most impact and which firms students think are the most
prestigious, the best for training contracts and best for a healthy work/life balance, as well as which
firms are working hardest to address diversity issues.
The study
Now in its sixth year, this report canvasses the views of law students at the leading
universities and the largest GDL providers in the UK. Respondents are asked a series of
questions to establish their professional ambitions, what they think of their courses and
faculties, their exposure to legal marketing and their resulting perceptions of law firms.
Content
The first half of the report examines why students have decided on a career in law before looking at their
sources of information and the importance they attach to each one. In the second half, international,
national and City law firms are assessed across five different performance criteria:
Diversity – which firms are leading the field on diversity issues?
Prestige – which firms have the most sticking power in terms of brand recognition?
Best training programme – which firms have really communicated the strength of their programmes to
the students and careers offices?
Work/life balance – which firms will allow graduates to have a life outside the office?
Best career options – which firms are the best for starting out with, in terms of a CV?
Best gender opportunities – which firms promote the role of women internally and in the profession?
Benchmarking
We use the results to create benchmarking tables of all firms covered in the report
These will be broken down into international, national and City firms
The tables will specify the firm’s scores for each of the performance criteria, against the results of other firms
The overall rankings are broken down by reference to year of study, type of institution, gender and ethnic
grouping, but also by motivation and career ambition

Law Student Report 2012
60
What is important for students? 2011
50
40
30
20
10
0
Good salary and benefits
Work/life balance
Post-qualification career prospects
Quality of legal work offered
Brand/prestige
Location
Range of legal work offered
Funding of LPC
International opportunities
Perceived culture
Trainee retention track record
Structure of training contract
Summer placement opportunities
Attitude to gender equality
Pro bono opportunities
CSR opportunities
Performance at law fair
Presentation at social events
Research methodology
In 2011, the survey received over 3,000 replies from law students at Russell Group universities
and GDL students from the College of Law, BPP and Kaplan Law Schools
The heads of the law faculty and career advisory bodies at each institution disseminate a link to an
nonline survey
Law students are also contacted by telephone to answer more specific questions on behalf of
individual law firms
Standard package
As part of the standard package you’ll receive:
A hard copy of the report, a PDF for internal distribution, plus all the charts and tables in Excel
A management presentation of the results from our director of research, which can be presented to
your board or the graduate recruitment/HR team, or both. The presentation will drill down from the
general findings to a firm’s specific scores, especially in the context of a hand-picked peer group
Participating law firms that perform the best in their category (international, national and City) will
be awarded an accreditation as Best Graduate Employer 2012
Additional services for 2012
This year, in response to client feedback, we’re offering a number of additional services:
Firms have the opportunity to ask students firm-specific questions, giving them the opportunity to
probe branding and reputational issues in more detail
We have additional questions this year on firm-specific Legal Practice Courses and redundancy
programmes. Law firms can gauge the effect of publicity on their reputation among the country’s best
legal schools
The best-performing firms will highlighted in Legal Week, on legalweek.com and in Legal Week’s
student supplement