Shard

Really? Your sample sizes are not only small, but of completely different proportions. You would need to assess a vastly larger group of non-Oxbridge lawyers to suggest an equivalence in quality.

Almost Canadian

Eh?

I would imagine that the proportion of lawyers that I knew that were non-Oxbridge v Oxbridge was a similar proportion to the proportion of non-Oxbridge v Oxbridge lawyers throughout the country. In England, I worked at a number of law firms (large and small) one of which, Eversheds, had 4,000 lawyers.

One's ability to be successful as a lawyer has, I believe, little to do with which law school one attended, and far more to do with how one gets on as a lawyer once out of law school.

I don't doubt that it is same in most other professions too.

Are you paid significantly less than those in your profession that attended Oxbridge?

Oink

Is not about that though. It’s about the type of people who are selected for Oxbridge or Ivy League schools rather than the education itself. Thus, it’s obvious firms would prefer to hire the cream of the crop rather then the dross you get at bumblenaff state or a redbrick uni.

Shard

Yes, this is roughly the point that I was endeavouring to make. A simplification but, Eversheds may be mixing the cream of Bumblenaff with the dross of Oxbridge. It's hard to believe a major UK law firm would have a staff representative of all UK lawyers.

Almost Canadian

I thought I made that point above - the quality of those selected for such universities is such that they are likely to become more successful (however that is defined) than those that couldn't get selected. The issue then becomes: did attending such a place make them more successful than those that were selected, but didn't attend.

In a case that I was involved with in England, this issue came up and, to a large extent, it was resolved by a study that showed that, when such a comparison was made, those that chose not to attend actually did better than those that didn't.

If you have any time at all, have a look at the websites of any major law firms in England, and see how many of the partners attended such firms (their bios are usually posted).

I get that those in academia care about the university someone attended but, in reality, 2 years or so into practice, no one else does.

This discussion came about as a result of Oink's reference above to premium fees being paid. What I am suggesting is on guarantee that the premium paid will be returned, simply by attending that institution (and I accept the "marketing" aspect referred to Dbd33 above), just as, one assumes, having parents that mix in exclusive circles would give their offspring the chance to mix with "high value" potential clients too.

Novocastrian

One of the critical flaws (and there are many) in your position, is that the typical career of an Oxbridge Law student is politics, not being a lawyer.