Follow the leader – why accountancy and law should swap notes on diversity
With a reputation for conservatism over innovation, it isn't often that law firms set the pace in the wider professional community. But this week's news that KPMG is hoping to create the accounting world's own version of the much-lauded PRIME social mobility scheme marks a rare example of the legal industry doing just that.
January 10, 2013 at 07:03 PM
6 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Law.com
With a reputation for conservatism over innovation, it isn’t often that law firms set the pace in the wider professional community.
But this week’s news that KPMG is hoping to create the accounting world’s own version of the much-lauded PRIME social mobility scheme marks a rare example of the legal industry doing just that.
The emotive subject matter and positive headlines the scheme has garnered means a comparable move by another profession wasn’t unlikely, particularly given former Cabinet minister Alan Milburn’s plea to the accounting and banking industries to follow law’s lead last May.
But it still shows just how far the scheme has come in little more than a year. At that stage, getting 23 leading UK law firms to commit to a common initiative to help open up the notoriously closed profession of law to underprivileged children made it a groundbreaking move.
Today, that figure stands at some 90 law firms, as well as in-house legal teams at brands such as Google and Vodafone that many teenagers are likely to be more familiar with.
With more than 750 work experience placements handed out by 20 of the founding firms during its first year, PRIME should be on track to hit its target of giving out around 2,500 placements a year by 2015.
However, improving social mobility is about more than just work experience. The true marks of PRIME’s success will not be available for many years to come, when some of these students hopefully start entering the profession.
Raising aspirations is admirable and, of course, PRIME isn’t just about attracting children to law, but about showing them the host of other jobs they could do in City law firms.
But showing people what they could have without really giving them the means of getting there will only go a small way to improving diversity.
And bridging this gap is one area where the legal profession could look back to the accountants for advice, because it requires removing some of the other barriers to qualification as a lawyer, whether they be financial costs of a degree or academic grades.
Government plans to allow qualification through the apprenticeship route are a good start, but even if the plans come to fruition they will need proper buy-in from law firms to make them work.
And this must include buy-in from City firms to avoid creating a two-tier profession. Many partners support the idea of apprenticeships in theory (and so they should, given the past clerkship route effectively equated to the same thing).
But this support needs to mean shifting the viewpoint from something that could theoretically work at someone else’s law firm to something they could try to make happen at their own. Just as some of the accountants have.
Related:
- KPMG enters talks over PRIME-style scheme for accountants
- Partners back apprenticeships into law but fear trainees will struggle for acceptance
With a reputation for conservatism over innovation, it isn’t often that law firms set the pace in the wider professional community.
But this week’s news that
The emotive subject matter and positive headlines the scheme has garnered means a comparable move by another profession wasn’t unlikely, particularly given former Cabinet minister Alan Milburn’s plea to the accounting and banking industries to follow law’s lead last May.
But it still shows just how far the scheme has come in little more than a year. At that stage, getting 23 leading UK law firms to commit to a common initiative to help open up the notoriously closed profession of law to underprivileged children made it a groundbreaking move.
Today, that figure stands at some 90 law firms, as well as in-house legal teams at brands such as
With more than 750 work experience placements handed out by 20 of the founding firms during its first year, PRIME should be on track to hit its target of giving out around 2,500 placements a year by 2015.
However, improving social mobility is about more than just work experience. The true marks of PRIME’s success will not be available for many years to come, when some of these students hopefully start entering the profession.
Raising aspirations is admirable and, of course, PRIME isn’t just about attracting children to law, but about showing them the host of other jobs they could do in City law firms.
But showing people what they could have without really giving them the means of getting there will only go a small way to improving diversity.
And bridging this gap is one area where the legal profession could look back to the accountants for advice, because it requires removing some of the other barriers to qualification as a lawyer, whether they be financial costs of a degree or academic grades.
Government plans to allow qualification through the apprenticeship route are a good start, but even if the plans come to fruition they will need proper buy-in from law firms to make them work.
And this must include buy-in from City firms to avoid creating a two-tier profession. Many partners support the idea of apprenticeships in theory (and so they should, given the past clerkship route effectively equated to the same thing).
But this support needs to mean shifting the viewpoint from something that could theoretically work at someone else’s law firm to something they could try to make happen at their own. Just as some of the accountants have.
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