The Scottish law graduate who is taking three law firms to court for discrimination has contacted The New Lawyer to "set the record a bit straighter" and explain his case.

THE Scottish law graduate who is taking three law firms to court for discrimination has  contacted The New Lawyer to "set the record a bit straighter" and explain his case.

In an exclusive and uncommon letter to the editor, Andrew McSorley explained his claims against law firm Tods Murray and other law firms.

As The New Lawyer reported on Tuesday, 37-year-old Scottish law graduate McSorley, is claiming British law firms have a fixation with employing freshly qualified graduates, particularly females, rather than older people with more experience.

He claims that when he applied to the firm last year, it took three separate letters to give a good reason as to why he shouldn't get the job.

McSorley said: "I found out that the oldest applicant they took on was 26, which was 10 years younger than I was at the time."

"My formal submission is that the only reason I was rejected was because I was 36 years of age," he said.

"I'm in an age group that is statistically far less likely to possess a 2:1 degree, but I am not adequately qualified and have great previous experience," he said.

Today, The New Lawyer received a comment on its website from "Andrew McSorley". "I just thought I would add a comment to set the record a bit straighter," he said.

He said his claims against Tods Murray and the other firms are based purely on age rather than gender. McSorley said he has no idea whether or not Tods Murray prefer female graduates, "but I do wonder if I have missed a potential ground of discrimination".

The writer refers to evidence, posted on the Law Society of Scotland website, that by 2011 the average lawyer will be female and under 30, and that for solicitors with 5 years' experience or under there are twice as many women as there are men.

"I do wonder why, when the profession was mostly male, that was a 'bad thing' to be rectified. But now its becoming mostly female that is a 'good thing' and evidence or equality and diversity? When I last looked women made up just over 50 per cent of the population," he said.