Ropes & Gray Launches Innovative CV Blind and Contextual Recruitment Process for Trainees in London

Global law firm Ropes & Gray has launched a new trainee recruitment process for its London office, which combines elements of contextual recruitment and CV blind. Ropes & Gray is one of the first law firms in the UK to have combined both of these systems – in order to identify relative overachievers and reduce unconscious bias - as part of its graduate recruitment selection and interview process.  

Ruchit Patel, London recruitment partner at Ropes & Gray explained that the firm’s commitment to social diversity was an important driver for implementing the new process. “Diversity is part of the fabric of Ropes & Gray,” he said. “By way of example, we’re proud that 35% of our partners and 37% of our counsel in London are women.  We are equally committed to fostering an inclusive community of professionals of all races, religions, sexual orientations and family structures.” 

The new trainee recruitment process, which has been successfully piloted this month, starts with an online application that incorporates Rare’s contextual recruitment tool.  This contextualises the accomplishments of applicants dependent on their socio-economic background. These applications are reviewed by the firm’s graduate recruitment team and a group of partners, who identify who to invite to an assessment day.  The assessment day is then overseen by a new group of partners, who are only aware of candidates’ names, to ensure the process is CV blind.  Successful candidates are finally then invited to attend a vacation scheme in order to be considered for a training contract offer. 

Ruchit Patel said: “Our aim in implementing this new trainee recruitment process is to ensure we attract and select the very best talent regardless of background.  We believe our fresh approach is a major improvement on the more traditional recruitment methods used by many other firms in the City.” 

For further information about the firm’s UK recruitment programme please click here.  Further information is also available at @RopesGrayGrads