Climbhelp2_blog.jpgLast week's report on the professions by Alan Milburn, which criticised the legal profession for failing to deliver on social mobility, has generated plenty of debate. But when it comes down to it, the main barrier preventing candidates from poorer backgrounds from getting into a career in law is firms' requirement that recruits obtain a minimum A-level score (usually 320 UCAS points, or ABB).

The correlation between A-level grades and the standard of school you went to is beyond doubt. If you go to a decent school – whether it's private or a high-performing state school in a desirable catchment area – nine times out of 10 you get better A-levels. Those from low-performing schools in deprived areas are at an undeniable disadvantage.

The main argument against scrapping the A-level requirement, or at least being much more flexible regarding academic qualifications for otherwise promising candidates, is that without it, graduate recruitment departments would face a huge amount of work individually sifting through each application form. The logic is that A-level results, though not perfect, are the best filter. The hassle factor has also prevented the most commonly mooted alternative, aptitude testing, from getting off the ground.

Fair enough, you might say. Still, the contrast between firms' shoulder-shrugging pragmatism on the topic of graduate entry requirements and the 'anything is possible' zeal they show for corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives is striking.

With a few notable exceptions such as Addleshaw Goddard's Diversity Access Programme, firms have largely channelled their social energies into well-resourced and elaborate CSR programmes, limiting their commitment to broadening entry into the profession to schemes such as the College of Law's Pathways to Law programme, which aim to raise state school students' aspirations rather than actually making it easier for them to get their foot in the door as trainees.

While law firms' CSR programmes are often carefully thought-out and managed – Clifford Chance's tie-up with the Community Links advice centre in Canning Town, East London, springs to mind as an example of such a project – the reality often seems to be well-meaning lawyers turning up to do community activities that they're not particularly well-placed to provide. So here's an idea: instead of sending lawyers to paint and repaint walls of inner-city youth clubs, why not get them to spend a few hours reviewing application forms of students from those areas which would otherwise have been discarded for failing to meet minimum A-level requirements?

Okay, there may be a lot of applications to get through, but according to law firm chiefs, there are a lot of lawyers who are very keen to do CSR activities. Or, dare I say it, is trawling through application forms just not grittily glamorous enough to constitute true CSR?