university bias

When graduates look and apply for a legal sector job, is it common that law firms all look at the university you graduated from and make a choice or have reservations due to the university you went to?
Thanks

When graduates look and apply for a legal sector job, is it common that law firms all look at the university you graduated from and make a choice or have reservations due to the university you went to?
Thanks

Law firms and barristers chambers recruit on merit, not on the names of universities.

Yes, firms and chambers care which uni you attended. It matters more at US/MC firms and at most chambers. Obviously, this isn't their only concern but having the "right" university on your application can open doors and firms will take interested students at target unis out for dinners to meet them in year 1 o 2.
Is it the only route to a "big firm"? No. My trainee cohort had people from various unis.
Also, recruitment is not usually "university-blind". I certainly never came across a VC, TC or NQ job application which didn't ask you to name the uni you graduated from.

I think the give away is that the big firms don't hold events in many non-RG universities or sponsor their law societies. Many of the trainees from non-RG unis have super high grades like firsts and academic awards of achievement. Others would paralegal at firms for years before starting a TC.

Universities apply their own marking standards, and it is unrealistic to suggest that a first from, say, Bedfordshire is always equivalent to a first from, say, UCL. In a university-blind selection process, a star candidate who has graduated from Bedfordshire may succeed, but he or she is at risk of losing to the UCL graduate because the latter has had a deeper, wider, and more rigorous university education. UCL has more resources than Bedfordshire. UCL can apply high entrance standards and recruit students who have strong academic profiles.
It is of course possible to do very well with a degree from a university not generally regarded as distinguished, but it's probably harder to do so.
Selection processes are biased in favour of ability and potential, and it may be easier for the UCL graduate to demonstrate ability and potential than the Bedfordshire graduate. Thus, even when the selectors do not know which universities the two candidates went to, the UCL graduate may well still come out ahead.
Perhaps the Bedfordshire graduate is a victim of structural inequality. He or she grew up poor, with little parental support, and went to a rotten State school. The UCL graduate grew up in a comfortable but not wealthy middle class home with loving parents, and went to a good State school. But that's a whole different topic.