Blackstone's Tower: The English Law School - College of Social ...

Law School Culture: A Visit to Rutland
justifiably claim various kinds of relative deprivation in their background,
situation and prospects. 20 The bare figures can also be misleading
about class. There is a good deal of evidence to suggest that
the great majority of law students and an even higher proportion of
practising lawyers in most Commonwealth jurisdictions come from
the upper middle class and above. 21 Rutland does not have many
so-called "Oxbridge rejects", but in most respects, despite some
attempts to disguise the fact, it is predominantly middle class, both
demographically and culturally—an elite institution, somewhere in
the middle of the Premier League.
In a useful preliminary cohort study of law students, published in
1994, David Halpern found that undergraduates' expressed views
suggested that they "were a vocationally orientated group and, to
some extent, more vocationally orientated than those who were
teaching them." 22 This is a judicious way of pointing to a divide
which varies considerably between institutions and which is naturally
glossed over by publicity literature, except the occasional
"alternative prospectus". 23
Student culture is a powerful force in law schools. Here I shall
focus on just one aspect: the seeming disjunction between its
strong vocational bias and the actual careers of law graduates. Rutland
provides a clear example. Most national figures about graduate
employment are "first-job" statistics, which merely reveal that
between 1980 and 1990 a majority of law graduates proceeded to
"further training" and that very few were unemployed. 24 These
figures are almost useless, since they provide no information
beyond the first year after graduation. Of the 60-70 percent of law
graduates who sought a professional qualification, some failed to
obtain a place on a vocational course, some dropped out or failed
at that stage, many were unable to obtain pupilages at the bar or
training contracts with solicitors' firms; there was further "wastage"
before qualification and a great many young barristers and solicitors
left private practice within a few years. The market has fluctuated
over time, and has recently declined sharply, so that by
1993/4 it seemed quite possible that in future only about 30-40 per
cent, of law graduates would even have an opportunity to qualify.
Concerned about this perceived decline in opportunities, the
Rutland Careers Office undertook a survey of the career patterns
of its UK graduates over the period 1980-1993. 25 Despite the practical
difficulties of contacting alumni, there was a reasonable
response rate. The results surprised both the Careers Office and the
Law School. For no single cohort between 1980 and 1987 had
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