An unsentimental education

Several years back, College of Law chief executive Nigel Savage must have been tempted to give up.

The College was doing OK but pesky law school upstarts in Nottingham and Oxford – as well as London rival BPP – had secured the key piece of the market: the consortium of the UK’s top firms that launched the original City legal practice course (LPC) in 2001.

Today’s announcement that all the City’s main law schools have been invited to tender for the latest version of the City LPC could be the final chapter of a remarkable turnaround. Not only has the College pulled level with its competitors, it now has the chance to become the dominant force in the market.

The turnaround started in 2004 when the eight-strong consortium split, with the College securing Clifford Chance, Linklaters and Allen & Overy while the rest - Slaughter and May, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith, Lovells and Norton Rose - signed with BPP.

What ensued was years of heavy marketing by Savage, BPP chief Peter Crisp and other LPC providers to secure exclusive deals with London firms – a war of attrition largely won by the College and BPP.

Seventeen of the UK’s top firms now have exclusive LPC providers. BPP works with nine, while the College has deals with eight.

If the College wins out in this tender to work with the consortium, it will be the exclusive legal education provider to nearly three-quarters of all the firms to have agreed such deals. Such a change would also severely dent BPP’s presence with the top City firms, leaving it with just CMS Cameron McKenna, Simmons & Simmons, Macfarlanes and Addleshaw Goddard.

While there is nothing to yet suggest this will be the case, the fact that five of BPP’s firms are now considering rival bids suggests that its members could be tempted by other offers.

The consortium firms insist that they are not unhappy with BPP but rivals appear unconvinced that such a successful relationship would need reviewing after just two years. Even Slaughters’ training head, Louise Stoker, admits BPP will be given no preferential treatment in the tender process.

The consortium firms argue they are simply keeping their options open in light of (yet another) review of the LPC regime just launched by the Solicitors Regulations Authority. But if this really is the case, why not wait a year and discover what the new course will look like before deciding who can provide it?

Many suspect Savage’s tenacity and marketing gusto have convinced the consortium to at least have a good look at what is on offer.

If he wins, it will complete a considerable turnaround and usher in a new era of domination for the College in the City’s legal education arena, which has become a cut-throat market unrecognisable from its sleepier early incarnations.

And if Savage doesn’t win out this time, he isn’t likely to giving up trying any time soon either.

paul.hodkinson@legalweek.com