BPP Law School is set to battle it out against the College of Law to keep the five-firm City Legal Practice Course (LPC) consortium as a client.
The consortium has asked current provider BPP as well as the College, the Inns of Court School of Law and Nottingham at Kaplan this week to present their ideas for a revamped LPC.
The law schools are due to pitch to the firms - Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Slaughter and May, Herbert Smith, Lovells and Norton Rose - in May, with a decision due in the summer and the new course coming into effect as early as September 2008.
BPP’s MBA-style consortium LPC started in September 2006 but was only ever intended to last for an initial two-year period.
The decision to put the contact out to tender was prompted by upcoming changes to the LPC which could come into effect from September 2008.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) issued a consultation paper on the subject last week (23 February) proposing changes to both the content and the structure of the course. The consultation is due to close at the end of May.
Slaughter and May training head Louise Stoker told Legal Week: “Ideally, we will set up a new course to start in 2008. All course providers will get the same information from us and we will treat them all on an equal footing.”
The SRA is considering whether elective subjects should be studied separately to compulsory subjects, granting exemptions from part or parts of the LPC, as well as making the whole course more flexible.
The City LPC consortium firms have been keen to stress they have been very happy with BPP, although the decision to start a tender process is likely to raise questions about the law school’s relationship with the consortium.
One training partner at a rival City firm commented: “They would not tender it unless there was the prospect to get something better – either in terms of content or price.”
BPP chief executive Peter Crisp said: “The firms have been completely up-front about their plans. These are major potential changes to the LPC and we understand they need to consider their options."
Talkback: Which is the best LPC provider? Click here to have your say.
I was at one major provider last year and I was thorougly unimpressed. With the exception of one tutor, I thought the standard of teaching was poor. It is best summed up by my Debt Finance tutor, who had last practised any corporate/finance law while a trainee in the late 1980s.
I imagine that rival colleges are not much better either. Why would one give up private practice to teach the LPC? It is a dead-end course that has very little relevance to City trainees.
However, I was one of the lucky ones. My firm paid the tutition costs and a grant. There are those that have to fork out £10k for that dross course.
I gave up practice to teach the LPC. Best thing I ever did. Totally changed my life for the better. Comments about the LPC as a course not wholly unjustified though.
Still, I would like that magic circle trainee's view on LPC teaching as a career option in about 4-5 years when the late nights, long weekends and cancelled plans start to take their toll.
Good luck!
Thing is, no one knows who is the best LPC provider. Any student only does one at one place (thank goodness!). Even the 'consortium' don't know or they wouldn't be putting out to tender. I think 'magic circle trainee' is over-doing it a bit though. Personally, I don't know what's worse about being on the LPC - that some of the teaching is a bit patronising or having to share a lecture theatre with soon-to-be trainees that think they know it all already.
No-one knows who the best LPC provider is, and no-one really cares, because it's an entirely pointless waste of time everywhere, taught by the laughably inept for the terminally overconfident. It was my favourite year as a student - paid to be a complete layabout, with no need to ever go to class because the exams (which were closed book), were moronic. I loved it! But if I had been paying out of my own pocket, I would have been weeping bitter tears on a daily basis.
The LPC in my view is trying to be all things to all men. This of course is impossible. A reason why the polls make one LPC more successful is simple. To practise law the in England there is no other mainstream option than to take it, and past students (and therefore current law firms) are unlikely to criticise their own training path and course provider. Firms have a vested interest in getting new trainee lawyers as replacement revenue streams for those who have moved on upwards. The Law Society and the law industry combine to influence how the course is structured and this is a reflection of how the country is and not how we would like it to be. When new students finally arrive, they find they have adopted the same mainstream approach of survival and self-interest like everyone around them. What is needed is a root and branch shake-up of the legal profession. De-monopolising the LPC would be a good start.
Latest Jobs
