Career Clinic: TC cancelled at the last minute - what next?

Moral Obligation

Have you called the SRA for its advice? At the very least, your firm has a moral obligation to network hard on your behalf with contacts at other law firms to house you. You should be quite firm reminding the partners that you relied to your detriment on the offer they made, and put yourself out of the recruitment market on the basis of their offer. I don't know what the firm's legal obligation is, or what the SRA rules are. But, I would like to think the firm feels very bad at the situation you have been landed in. I am very sorry this has happened to you; lawyers at other firms will be very sympathetic I feel and this fact might also play to your advantage. Hope you find a solution.

anon -08 Sep 2011 | 06:45

Try Burges Salmon

The firm that organised re-housing of Halliwells trainees was Burges Salmon and the partner was Stephen McNulty. I would contact Stephen McNulty because, presumably he would still have contacts from the Halliwells situation and based on the quotes from their website I think he would be passionate about helping you:

"I believe it is incumbent on the solicitors' profession as a whole to do something to help these individuals whose professional lives could be seriously de-railed by the withdrawal of their training contracts. All firms have a responsibility to the profession and I believe that it is right they should consider co-operating in the scheme so that as many training contracts as possible are re-instated" (Stephen McNulty).

"We aim to keep the legal press fully informed of the progress of this initiative and will encourage credit to be given to firms who respond to this challenge" (Stephen McNulty).

See: http://www.burges-salmon.com/news/8354.aspx

I would add though that I fear that law firms only came to the rescue of the Halliwells trainees for a PR stunt. As your firm is not in the news you might not be as lucky as the Halliwells trainees but it sounds like these guys at Burges Salmon will help you even if other firms don't.

Ashley Young -08 Sep 2011 | 10:58

Ouch, what bad luck indeed.

I agree with the above poster to an extent, you should contact the firm and put some pressure on them to find you something with another local firm. If they have any morals, they will have already tried that but at least they will confirm the same.

Best advice: find a decent recruiter immediately!

Best of luck.

Dr Who -08 Sep 2011 | 11:00

Don't use rec cons

I agree with all of the above postings, except the advise to use recruitment consultants. The only POSSIBLE advantage to using them as a junior is to save time, and since you have lots of time you can do a far better job yourself. Best of luck to you.

Indahouse -08 Sep 2011 | 11:50

Hmmm

My story is exactly the same as this, so much so I am sure the writer of this is the other trainee due to start at the same time as me.

If this is the case, please email me on future.trainee@gmail.com

P.S. I have already contacted Burges Salmon, they were sympathetic but "couldn't offer any help". Sadly I suspect it was all a PR stunt, and not the altruistic actions they stated at the time.

future trainee -08 Sep 2011 | 15:50

Look for other opportunities

Years ago, the law firm I was trianing with went into liquidation six months into my trianing contract ...

All you can do in that situation is to dust yourself off and start looking again. Most employers are sympathetic the one thing to ensure is that you get a letter from your employer explaining the circumstances.

When it comes to hiring, most firms fear the unknown and untested and having had the ability to obtain a TC elsewhere will be a positive.

It took about three months of looking but I found somewhere else to finish off my TC and now enjoy a great career... So start looking and don't spend too much time dwelling on the loss of this TC.

Newbie -09 Sep 2011 | 09:31

More Information

I feel ever so sorry for you.

I note that you don't mention the type of firm you were going to (i.e. practice areas, etc). If you could provide a little more information, I'm sure anyone reading would find it easier to see what they could do to help.

Best of luck and I'm sure it'll work out for you soon enough.

TheLawGuy -09 Sep 2011 | 12:05

Good luck

It is a shame that Burges Salmon can't help on this occasion. It is strange that they would help before but not now? Maybe one of the legal publications should ask them about this because, after all, they got their free publicity last time so surely that justifies some scrutiny as to their altruistic commitments?

Maybe another firm could do what BS did last time. Maybe even extend it to people who don't have a training contract at all being on a database somewhere so that if firm's needs change i.e. they need trainees on short notice or they don't want to fund a recruitment drive then they have a centralised/organised system to choose from.

I recall that when Halliwells went wrong, the SRA said they couldn't do anything because it was an employer/employee issue as opposed to a regulatory one which is also a shame because I generally think that the whole trainee recruitment process needs better regulation, but I guess that is another story for another day.

Koutney Kardashian -09 Sep 2011 | 14:25

Hmmm....

Not quite sure why everyone thinks Burges Salmon should help this person, or anyone else. For Christ's sake, they might not even have a City TC or have done the correct electives.

On the other hand, the SRA is a different matter. My understanding is that the Trainee Partner takes personal responsibility for your training contract. You should definitely sue the idiots at this firm.

Tom -09 Sep 2011 | 18:03

Contact SRA: not quite the same as Halliwells...

This is not quite the same as Halliwells. The firm you were meant to be joining have not gone bust (or at least the original post suggests not) but are in "financial difficulty". They have made a commitment to you and as another poster has said you accepted their offer and did not pursue other opportunities in reliance on them employing you after undertaking your LPC.

If the firm is still trading (I assume it must be as you say it is a respected City firm and I have not heard of any other firms going to the wall), then I would contact the SRA and also take a look at the documents you received from the firm. Whilst you are unlikely to have signed an employment contract, you may have redress against the firm or its partners. The SRA should be able to advise you on this and would hopefully take a dim view of what this firm are doing.

This differs from Halliwells in that future trainees did not have a firm to seek redress against as it had gone bust with large debts (including HMRC and therefore likely to have bigger things to worry about than trainees with all due respect).

I hope you get this sorted and shame on this firm. They should be named and shamed in due course if you do not get redress.

Best of luck.

Anon -11 Sep 2011 | 21:08

possible option

You mention that the firm says it can't honour the TC due to financial difficulty. Are you prepared to complete the training contract on a lower salary? Have you asked the firm whether this is possible? If you can afford to do this and the firm is prepared to take you in the circumstances, such a compromise may be worthwhile given that especially in today's current economic/financial climate, it is, as you probably already know, very difficult to secure a TC.

Best of luck and I hope you can work something out rather than have to look for a TC from scratch again. Also, again if you could afford to do it, can the firm take you on as a paralegal at a reduced salary with a view to a TC within a certain timescale - say a year - and then assuming a TC is provided, you can get up to six months knocked off your TC depending on for how long you have worked as a paralegal.

Best of luck...

SSB -12 Sep 2011 | 16:44