CITY law firms must take steps to eliminate persistent discrimination in favour of Oxbridge graduates, David Lammy, Minister for Constitutional Affairs, said yesterday.

A paper published by the Department for Constitutional Affairs shows that Oxbridge law graduates are 16 times more likely to find jobs in City law firms than those from new universities.

At the same time, graduates from new universities — who include more ethnic minority students and those from disadvantaged backgrounds — are five times more likely than Oxbridge graduates to end up in high-street firms on lower rates of pay.

Mr Lammy — a barrister who read law at London and Harvard — said there was some good news in that figures showed slightly more than 25 per cent or 2,620 students studying for a law degree were from black or ethnic minorities.

But the figures also showed that just under 8 per cent of solicitors with practising certificates in 2003 were from an ethnic minority background.

“It is a fact that women and ethnic minorities have to fight as hard as ever to enter the profession. And once part of the profession, they have to battle even harder if they are to reach the top.” Ethnic minority students who did win places at top law firms found themselves channelled into less commercial areas of law, Mr Lammy told the Standing Conference on Legal Education in London.

Male trainees also received a salary which on average was 7.9 per cent higher than women trainees. “What we certainly do not want to see are students from non-traditional backgrounds being dissuaded from pursuing a career in law because they believe their career path will be limited. We have to stamp this out.” He urged law firms and chambers to do more to ensure that entrants came from diverse backgrounds.

One problem was funding: 78 per cent of Oxbridge students have their fees paid by a professional sponsor compared with 27 per cent from new universities, he said. Mr Lammy added: “If those with the resources at their disposal can’t lead the way, how can we expect others to?”

John Randall, chairman of the Justice Sector Skills Council, called on Sir David Clementi — in his forthcoming review of legal services — to introduce the principle of the “polluter pays” when it came to the cost of regulating the profession.

If top City law firms no longer had to foot the bill for the errors of high-street colleagues, they could use the money saved to fund scholarships under the Law Society diversity scheme.

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