updated on 20 July 2012
The 2012 Employee Satisfaction Report, conducted by Legal Week, questioned over 5,000 associates at leading UK and US law firms about their educational background. 57.5% of Linklaters respondents are privately educated - the highest percentage of any firm. CMS Cameron McKenna, Hogan Lovells and Ashurst are close behind, with each firm taking over 50% of its lawyers from privately educated backgrounds. Irwin Mitchell is currently the UK legal sector’s diversity champion, as 72.5% of its lawyers are state educated. Bird & Bird and DLA Piper also boast similarly diverse workforces.
Felix Hebblethwaite, global engagement and diversity manager at Linklaters, said: "We recognise the need for a diverse working population and started to collect data from our own people about their socio-economic background in 2010. We hold this data on 70% of our UK employees, which shows that only 31% of our associates attended a private school."