Training and education: All tied up

Author: Alex Aldridge

21 Dec 2009 | 14:19

Within a decade, training for major law firms has switched to exclusive provider deals. Alex Aldridge asks how much further the revolution is set to run

The last few years have seen the College of Law, BPP Law School and, to a lesser extent, Kaplan Law School jostle with each other to secure tie-ups with the top law firms. In the main, firms have been receptive to their advances, with the result being that the vast majority of UK top 20 law firms - and many top 50 firms and US firms with London offices - now have arrangements in place to send their future trainees to study the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) and Legal Practice Course (LPC) exclusively with a certain course provider.

It is a very different picture to the situation 10 years ago when the first law school-law firm tie-up was initiated between eight City firms (known as the ‘City consortium') and BPP, Nottingham Law School and the Oxford Institute of Legal Practice. Under the agreement, students with training contracts with the firms involved - Slaughter and May, Clifford Chance (CC), Linklaters, Allen & Overy (A&O), Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith, Lovells and Norton Rose - were taught a revamped, more commercially-focused LPC in groups alongside other future City consortium trainees at whichever of the three law schools was most convenient to them. Outside of the consortium, there were no other agreements between firms and course providers.

collegeoflaw When the consortium deal expired in 2005, the College of Law signed up magic circle trio CC, Linklaters and A&O as inaugural members of its new City-focused LPC programme. BPP retained the remaining five consortium members, with Nottingham Law School and the Oxford Institute dropped from the arrangement.

From that point it was open season, as BPP and the College of Law went head to head in respective bids to secure as many tie-ups with law firms as possible, with the newly formed Kaplan Law School - a spin-off of US education provider Kaplan which launched in association with Nottingham Law School in 2007 - also muscling in on the scene to take a few significant scalps. So far, BPP has focused on getting City firms on board, strengthening the reputation it established through the original City consortium as a specialist provider of legal education with a financial slant. The College of Law has cast its net wider, adding a host of major regional firms, including Wragge & Co and Halliwells, to its magic circle base, alongside smaller, quality outfits such as media law specialist Harbottle & Lewis. The new kid on the block Kaplan has taken a similar approach, adding firms such as Trowers & Hamlins, Bird & Bird and Penningtons to its initial deal with Anglo-American firm Mayer Brown. The most recent round of tie-ups has seen the College of Law sign an exclusive LPC and GDL deal with Denton Wilde Sapte, BPP do likewise with Withers and Kaplan secure agreements with Mills & Reeve and Field Fisher Waterhouse.

What's in it for us?

The attraction of tie-ups to law schools is obvious: they get more students, while at the same time squeezing out of the market rival providers, such as the Oxford Institute of Legal Practice and the University of the West of England, which have opted not to go down the exclusive route. Plus, by associating themselves with leading firms, the College of Law, BPP and Kaplan are boosting their own brands - making them more likely to attract students without training contracts who are keen to get a well known law school on their CVs to maximise their chances of landing a job. "Our experience is that students without a training contract are attracted to a training provider with a good selection of firms on its books," explains Kaplan Law School head of business development Peter Anderson.

Firms say the appeal of an exclusive agreement with a course provider lies, aside from the inclusion of City-focused training, in the various advantages that stem from having your next intake at the same institution. Jeremy Cape, trainee partner at Dentons, says that the central factor behind his firm's tie-up with the College of Law was that it will allow them greater access to future trainees: "It will mean we can do talks and drinks with them much more easily than otherwise so that they feel part of the family from an earlier stage." Meanwhile, Slaughters head of training Louise Stoker highlights the usefulness of having students study identical content: "Having all your trainees do the same LPC means you know exactly what they know and, more importantly, what they don't know - meaning we can align our subsequent internal training accordingly," she says.

peter-crisp-wrap No doubt the issue of cost also figures in firms' decision-making on tie-ups, with providers offering discounts to firms which send large amounts of students their way. "There is obviously a deal to be done in any market if you bring volume to a training provider," says Kaplan Law School's Anderson. However, BPP Law School chief executive Peter Crisp (pictured) plays down the role of discounts: "I'm not saying cost isn't a factor, it's just that other factors, namely convenience and consistency, are much more significant," he says. Off the record, recruitment partners at the leading City firms go along with this, with one stating: "It is actually surprising how little all this has to do with money in terms of actual course fees. While there is a range of fees offered outside the standard advertised rates, it is not massive - and, to be honest, each firm is spending so much money per trainee that any discount you get from a provider is not going to make a huge difference."

Of course, not all firms go for exclusive deals with course providers, with some - including Olswang, Clyde & Co and DLA Piper - keen to give their trainees flexibility over where they study. Clydes, which has a preferred list of course providers that it recommends to trainees, explains its stance accordingly: "We believe that by giving our trainees their choice of institution and location they will be able to tailor their studies to their own learning styles and personal circumstances, which only enhances their experience and success."

Which law school?

Having made the decision to form an exclusive LPC/GDL agreement, how do firms decide on which law school to sign up with? Existing relationships between firms and course providers play a part, as do the quality of pitches made by the providers, say recruitment partners. But a major part of it seems to come down to preferences for the various different course models offered.

The College of Law distinguishes itself from the competition through its individually tailored courses which see future trainees taught in separate groups using standard firm documents. Firms are given the opportunity to get quite heavily involved in the design and delivery of the course. "This allows some firms to be very hands-on," says Sarah Hutchinson, director of business development at the College of Law, "with Halliwells, for example, sending in associates to co-teach with our tutors." (The College of Law also offers a one-size-fits-all City focused LPC for firms not wanting such hands-on involvement.)

BPP, on the other hand, bases its course design on collective input from its five City consortium members, and this month will be launching an accelerated LPC (with course length reduced to seven and a half months). "The recession won't be here forever and the accelerated programme will be ideal for consortium louisestoker-crop firms because it means that they can take trainees immediately after they've completed the course," says BPP's Crisp.

Kaplan Law School, which teaches Nottingham Law School's well regarded GDL and LPC, trades on its smaller size: "It means we can give students that greater personal touch," says Anderson.

Linklaters trainee development partner Simon Firth thinks the College of Law approach gives its future trainees an edge: "Being involved in
the course design means that we can make it as relevant to our practice as possible - so, for example, it includes an international disputes module, which isn't typical," he comments. "And using Linklaters precedents means that when students arrive as trainees
they are already familiar with them." The result, he continues, is that trainees are more motivated during their LPC year and join the firm "further up the training curve than before".

However, Slaughters' Stoker (pictured) argues that the consortium model is more effective in the long term: "Sharing the course design with other firms is an efficient way to work that makes use of all our expertise. Plus we have always felt that it is healthy for students to mix with people from other firms as it gives them a network of people they may come across later in their careers." She adds that the use of firm-specific documents could put trainees at a disadvantage when they have to deal with documents from other firms during cases and transactions

But, whatever their preferences, most agree that the LPCs offered by the top providers are all pretty high standard and leave students well-equipped to pursue a career in private practice. "A lot of it is marketing spiel," commented one recruitment nigel-savage-crop partner. "And the fact is that anyone doing an LPC at a reasonable institution followed by a training contract at a leading firm is going to be pretty well positioned to have a decent career."

Dentons' Cape expresses a similar sentiment: "I don't think we've got to a point where someone can point to a trainee and say ‘that's a BPP LPC graduate and that's a College of Law one.'"

Still, there are no signs that the law school-law firm link up trend is set to slow, with several further tie-ups expected to be announced in the next few weeks. And after the top 50 are all signed up, course providers may begin to look internationally.

"The challenge for the future will be matching what we do on a domestic front with global education and training," says College of Law chief executive Nigel Savage (pictured).

"Because at some stage firms will want the same training for their 30 new recruits in India as they do for their domestic kids."

College of Law law firm tie-ups