Following a comment by Lawminx on an, unrelated, CharonQC post he and Simon Myerson QC ( a real QC rather than Charon’s humorous self appointment) both refer to the profoundly dubious Oxbridge Training Contracts organisation. This bunch of bottom-feeders aims to assist pupillage/trainee applicants to enhance their chances of a pupillage or a training contract by providing services that seem, in some cases at the very mildest, to be decidedly unethical either as the consumer of the service, or, for the contracted writer, the answer provider. Indeed if it is true, and one may reasonably doubt that it is not a fraudulent enterprise, that top barristers or pupils are writing the material to be used it may be they are at risk of being struck off for disciplinary breaches of the Bar Standards Board provisions on ethics.
If, as a student, tempted through understandable desperation, you consider using such a service Geeklawyer would say this: it is profoundly unlikely that they would equip you to survive the rigours of an interview. You may get a foot in the door but last no longer than the 30 minutes of forensic examination needed to show that you are a fraud. What if you can’t sustain the arguments in their writing because you are too dim or they are inept? Given the dire quality that Oxbridge Training Contracts material demonstrate you may spend thousands of pounds to get nowhere. Consider this piece of brilliant English, costing several thousand pounds one assumes, used to persuade chambers to interview you:
“I know from conversations that awards are taken with a degree of salt at Chambers”.
As Simon Myerson QC acidly, and rightly, observes one takes something with a pinch of salt. A degree of salt is taken in Media Studies, not in law.
Good post… quite right. I agree. I shall follow up on this myself to add to your and Simon Myerson QC’s analysis.
It is impressive, if not a tad scary also, how quickly the big three of the blawging world have leapt into action.
I must, as I have done at Simon Myerson’s pages, give the most ENORMOUS Hat Tip possible to Android at Android’s Reminiscences for flagging this place up in her research for a piece that she is writing for Legal Village.
Oxbridge Training Contracts is so wrong on so many levels that I hardly know where to begin, but I will say this:
The most cursory investigation of the site throws up many many issues, not least of all its alleged ability to provide offer ‘Model’ Answers for the ‘Chambers Specific’ aspect of the application form, and actually lists a number of Very High End Sets against whom this service could be provided. It is frightening reading; I wonder if these chambers are aware that this site is associating itself with them?-
As I’ve noted at Simon Myserson’s blog, on a quick whois check on oxbridge training contracts and oxbridge law, these people are behind it:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article703120.ece
The brothers Malamatinas
Their attitude to ethics is clear enough… And google throws up some indication of their form.
Geek,
This reminds me of Porterhouse Blue, where the hapless postgrad earns some cash by sitting exams for gentleman. He came to an unfortunate end, I recall.
While I admit that a wry smile did escape me just for the sheer cheek of this, it is very worrying indeed that a) there are those out there that would think about paying for this and b) those who would risk their careers for short-term financial gain. Magic circle trainees and pupils don’t need to moonlight, they are paid well enough. And those at Oxbridge shouldn’t dilute the value of their degrees! I would like to see Kings and Birmingham Universities expel this pair for bringing their institutions into disrepute. They wouldn’t even hire themselves, so what does that say about their opinions of their own universities?
If you are not good enough you are not good enough and needless expenditure will only prolong you being discovered. It won’t, however, make it any less true.
I’m flattered to be up there…
It’s actually more of a comment on how offensive all 3 of us find this sort of thing, and of a genuine concern that students aren’t paying even more than the very large sums already required.
Also, we do talk to each other. GL emailed me…
… Thanks to you, to Simon and to Charon, the portal now carries a warning with respect to the use of this heinous website by those applying for pupillage this season.
Respec’ !!!!
I can think of a few things that would endanger an embryonic career in Law — or any other profession — but there is a special place for the folly of paying someone else to write dissertations, essays and job-hunting material likely to be examined face-to-face.
Being caught out is the immediate risk; relying on the substandard ‘product’ that rolls out of this kind of essay is more insidious, weakening one’s grounding in the subject; and, worst of all, the record of this shameful act is on a file forever with the writer’s agent! Do you think a company like that will convene an ethical review board before diversifying into blackmail?
As a final point, this sort of academic parasitism is a business that carries significant legal risks. It might be safe to try it with more docile professions, or with second-rate degree-awarding institutions that care more for the fees and the numbers than for standards; but trying this on with the Bar is like poking a hornets’ nest with a short stick.