Lawyers fight for graduates.

(From Financial Director)

Byline: Anthony Harrington.

Each year, accountancy and law firms battle it out to get their pick of the nation's bright young things. So far, it has been a one-sided contest, and the accountants have done very nicely, thank you. However, some lawyers think that, with regulatory pressure set to snip off all the accountancy profession's interesting bits, leaving practices restricted to audit and tax, tomorrow's cream of the graduate crop are more likely to be looking to the legal profession as the most exciting bet for the future.

If this happens, it will mark a radical change. Last year - and as far back as one cares to look - accountancy firms have been right at the top of the league tables when it comes to "most desired places to work". While the top law firm in last year's Times High Flyers survey was Clifford Chance, at number 26, the big accountancy firms ranked, as they consistently do, at the top of the graduate wish list.

High Flyers lists PwC and Andersen (which is no longer an option) in second and third places respectively, ahead of the Civil Service and the Army, with KPMG in sixth place, Ernst & Young in 13th and Deloittes in 16th. Consultancy Accenture topped the table, and companies filled out the top ten. Unilever, Procter & Gamble and Mars were in seventh, eighth and tenth places respectively.

Chris Campbell, managing partner at law firm Dundas & Wilson, argues there is a simple reason for the relatively poor showing of law firms in league tables such as this at present. It all comes down to scale.

"Clifford Chance is probably the world's biggest law firm, yet I would think that, in terms of numbers of employees, it has probably no more than between 2% and 4% of the number of staff of the biggest accountancy firms," he says.