Departure of Warwick biochemistry guru sparks concerns that website could return to ‘back of envelope’ ways
Leading data specialist Laura Fullwood has caused a surge of anxiety in the world of legal graduate recruitment by announcing that she is to quit Legal Cheek.
Excel guru Fullwood is known particularly for her work on the Commercial Awareness Academy series, which observers say she “revolutionised” with a series of sophisticated formulas that left some of her arts graduate colleagues “stunned”.
It’s rumoured that outgoing series sponsor Barbri caught wind of Fullwood’s departure and jumped ship for 2023-24. “Without Laura the Commercial Awareness Academy sponsorship was looking a very risky bet indeed,” a source said.
Although Legal Cheek has boosted its data analysis skills in recent years, with star hires such as Jemina Gilbert, Sam Jewell and Sophia Yantian dramatically increasing its Excel capability, fears remain that the publication could slip back to its old ‘back of envelope’ ways.
Famously, its editor, Tom Connelly, once described Excel as “pointless”, adding: “It’s just tables and you can make those on Word.”
Publisher Alex Aldridge even questioned the value of Word. Speaking in 2015 he said: “To work things out you just need a pen and a piece paper, and there’s no point buying expensive printer paper when there’s so much scrap paper laying around.”
Fullwood leaves Legal Cheek after a year long spell and returns to Warwick University. She said:
“It’s been a pleasure to work with some great people. I’d like to thank Legal Cheek for the opportunity and look forward to launching The Laura Fullwood Commercial Awareness Academy in partnership with Barbri later this year.”