Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- It isn't easy for corporate law firms to find qualified law-school graduates in the land of Montesquieu, one of the founders of modern Western legal theory.

``Because law schools are so weak in economics and out of touch, people who want to be corporate lawyers go to business schools,'' said Ted Kamman, an American partner at Clifford Chance in Paris.

Louis Vogel, the president of France's oldest law school at the University of Paris II Assas-Pantheon, is trying to change that. Drawing on his experience as a law student at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, he's hiring practicing lawyers to teach, expanding partnerships with internationally known programs such as Cambridge University's and building an alumni network to help students find internships and jobs.

Vogel is battling France's two-tiered system of higher education, where top high-school graduates compete for spots in the Grandes Ecoles, which offer engineering, government and business degrees. The study of law is left to public universities that are open to anyone who has passed the ``baccalaureat'' high- school exit examination.

The university system prevents Vogel from selecting his students and restricts funding. Yale Law School accepted 6.9 percent of its applicants this year, has 643 students and a $660 million endowment. Paris II has 18,000 students and no endowment.

Prisoner

``We're in the midst of a change,'' Vogel said at Paris II's columned building overlooking the Pantheon, burial place of France's most-honored scientists, soldiers, politicians and a few lawyers. ``I'm a prisoner of this system. That's why we have to suppress the differences between Grandes Ecoles and universities.''

The rivalry underscores efforts to make French universities competitive globally. Only four French institutions were ranked among the top 100 schools by Shanghai's Jiao Tong University this year. Yale was 11th, while Paris II placed 52nd.

In 1748, the French philosopher Charles de Montesquieu laid the groundwork for modern legal theory in ``The Spirit of Laws,'' arguing against an absolute law for all of mankind and for laws fitted to the ``people for whom they are framed.'' Thomas Jefferson echoed Montesquieu's phrase ``men are all equal'' in his writings.

Fewer Lawyers

Still, the legal profession doesn't have the same importance in France as in many other countries. There's one lawyer for every 2,461 Frenchmen, compared with one for every 694 Britons and one for every 320 Americans, according to United Nations statistics.

While that's beginning to change with the surge in cross- border mergers, international firms often recruit lawyers at the Grandes Ecoles, not French law schools.

Renaud Bonnet, a recruiting partner at Jones Day in Paris, said top candidates need business or economics degrees from a Grande Ecole and an American or British law degree.

``It's no longer enough to just do law school,'' he said.

International law firms expanded in France as mergers and acquisitions surged to 1,221 deals valued at $289 billion in 2006, from 754 deals totaling $67 billion in 2003, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Jones Day has hired 60 lawyers in France in the past three years, while Clifford Chance, the world's highest-grossing firm, has added 52. Since 2005, Dewey & LeBoeuf has added 33 lawyers and Winston & Strawn 44. Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson has added 18 lawyers in Paris since 2005.

`Fighting for Good Ones'

That's forcing French firms to work harder to attract top candidates, said Philippe Xavier-Bender, a partner at Paris-based Gide Loyrette Nouel. Clifford Chance offers a starting salary of 77,000 euros, compared with 60,000 euros at French competitors.

``The fact that Anglo-Saxon firms have come to Paris has completely changed the board,'' Xavier-Bender said. ``We are all fighting for the good ones.''

In response to the demand, some Grandes Ecoles offer specialized master's degrees in business law and have added law classes to their regular curricula.

Essec, a business Grande Ecole in Paris, has a program in international business and management law where Clifford Chance's Kamman teaches. In April, Sciences Po, France's top political and economics school, won the right for students who've taken law classes to apply directly for bar school, a two-year program for new lawyers.

The Grandes Ecoles will remain indispensable for students who want high-level legal jobs, said Lawrence Eaker, director of Essec's business law master's program.

Even the top French law students ``are still looked at by the French elite as university students,'' he said.

Under President Nicolas Sarkozy, a lawyer by training, the government in September passed a rule enabling each university to raise private funds and have more autonomy. While students at 31 universities staged strikes to protest the changes, Paris II students kept going to class.

``The legal profession is ascendant,'' Vogel said. ``It is absolutely necessary to have a Grande Ecole of law to compete with American and British'' lawyers.

To contact the reporter on this story: Heather Smith in Paris at hsmith26@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 13, 2007 18:02 EST