City firms support Vantage online recruitment tool aimed at less-privileged candidates

City firms have lined up in support of diversity organisation Rare’s new ‘Vantage’ scheme, an online recruitment tool designed to help candidates from less-privileged backgrounds break through the artificial barriers holding them back from careers in law.

The partner firms involved in the scheme include:

• Baker McKenzie;
• Clifford Chance;
• Eversheds Sutherland;
• Herbert Smith Freehills;
• Linklaters;
• Pinsent Masons; and
• Slaughter and May.

Vantage enables candidates to input their academic and personal information. Firms can then view the database and approach candidates they think are promising. Some 2,000 students are already registered to the system, with more expected to sign up once the Autumn term starts.

Research by Rare has identified 100 ‘high-low schools’ in the UK where only one in 40 students achieving an A grade in A-level English goes on to apply to the legal profession – 12 times less than the rate from elite schools. The firms signed up to Vantage have pledged to double the number of applicants from ‘high-low schools’ within three years.