Indian law students can intern in UK firms

Updated on: Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Mumbai: In a landmark judgment that will help Indian law students get opportunities for internships in law firms in the UK, an employment tribunal in that country has held that refusal by UK-based law firms to even consider applications by non-European Economic Area (EEA) nationals amounts to indirect racial discrimination.

The Employment Appellate Tribunal in February 2009 was dealing with a case filed by an Indian student Ashokvardhan Purohit who had accused Osborne Clarke Services, a UK Top-30 law firm, of discrimination for automatically rejecting his application for solicitor training on account of his nationality. The judgment is available on the tribunal’s website.

According to the Law Society Gazette, published by the Law Society of England and Wales, several large firms have a similar blanket ban on prospective trainees from countries outside the EEA, including those from India, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan and China. EEA constitutes European Union countries as well as Switzerland, Norway and Iceland.

‘‘This gives the opportunity to aspiring young students and professionals of non-EEA national to apply and compete for the jobs advertised and they will be considered on merit,’’ claimed Purohit, who had graduated from the University of Mumbai with a first class degree and went on to do his masters degree in banking and fina nce from the UK.

Purohit applied online for a trainee solicitor contract in June 2007 with OCS. He was informed that he didn’t meet the entry requirements. ‘‘We’re sorry.. we’re unable to accept applications from candidates who require a work permit to take up employment in the UK,’’ Purohit was told.

OCS had contended before the tribunal that even if they were to consider a non-EEA applicant, it would be difficult to obtain the required work permit from the Border and Immigration Authority. Further, they also said putting non EEA candidates through the recruitment process would incur costs and raise candidate expectations.

The tribunal held that OCS had placed no evidence on record to support its assumption that there was ‘‘no point in applying for a work permit as one will not be provided’’.

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Indian law students can intern in UK firms

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