Eversheds to offer condensed LPC and training contract
Eversheds is rolling out a groundbreaking two-year pilot that will blend the LPC and the training contract.
For the unique scheme to run the SRA has had to waive two key policies for the first time. It will allow Eversheds to run a training contract in conjunction with part-time study over two years instead of the normal three and will also let trainees undertake the Professional Skills Course before full completion of the LPC.
Everdsheds head of resourcing Nicky Bizzell said: “People want to qualify sooner. University’s becoming more expensive and taking a year out to do the LPC can be too much of a struggle with costs. Our scheme will allow them to qualify earlier and earn earlier.
“We found that some trainees would do the LPC quite a while before starting their training contract. Our programme is a way of making their learning more relevant for them.”
The training programme will operate by allowing a maximum of 16 graduates to complete their LPC electives during their training contract after studying the core subjects at BPP Law School.
The scheme will kick off next August, just a year after the conclusion of the SRA’s 2008 work-based learning pilot, which explored assessment methods and alternative qualification routes without a training contract (TheLawyer.com, 8 June).
Two continuing strands of the SRA pilot, involving paralegals and combined degrees, will finalise in 2012 as part of the Legal Education and Training Review.
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Readers' comments (29)
Anonymous | 14-Dec-2011 11:34 am
So when Eversheds assure me that they'll be giving my work to one of their Associates, they could be meaning some kid who got his LLB results 2 years and a month ago?
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Midlands Lawyer | 14-Dec-2011 11:36 am
To the poster at 0.28am, hate to say it, but a lot of LLB grads do not study corporate law until the LPC as well.
An interesting point that has yet to be considered is whether Eversheds will have a separate charge out rate for this new batch of trainees. Two things suggest it should: (i) they will cost Eversheds less (obvious saving is not paying an LPC maintenance grant, but there should be other cost savings as well); (ii) they will not have completed the LPC (and in an industry full of time or qualification based pricing thresholds, completion of the LPC surely should be a threshold to being charged out at a standard trainee rate).
Can leave that question to their clients to ask, but will be keen to see how that plays out.
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Anonymous | 14-Dec-2011 12:07 pm
I think a few of you need to re-read the proposal. This is not cutting out the LPC year ... It is only the three ELECTIVES that will be studied during the training contract - Stage 2. Stage 1, comprising all of the 'heavy' stuff such as BLP, Civil Lit, Crim Lit, PLP, the course skills (Advocacy, Interviewing and Advising, Drafting, Writing and PLR) and Prof Conduct and Regulation, Taxation and Wills and Admin of Estates will all happen before they join the Shed, at classes on the LPC as it currently exists. They then do one elective per seat, and that elective will be same subject as the seat being studied - so six months per elective, with built-in study leave and learning which is directly relevant to the work environment.... explain to me how this is diluting professionalism or dumbing down?
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Anonymous | 14-Dec-2011 8:44 pm
Strange how ignorant some lawyers are regarding the process of education. At university, even on the LPC, the student learns ‘how’ - how to read a case, how to compare legal subtleties etc etc. Just because you don’t now use the actual legal material you learned doesn’t mean that the process of learning wasn’t well spent. You don’t read exactly the same words you read when learning to read, do exactly the same sums when learning maths etc but that doesn’t mean that the skill isn’t present. The fact that you probably can’t remember not being able to read or add up doesn’t mean that the skill came quickly. No wonder Tesco etc will find it easy to muscle in when lawyers themselves are so quick to undermine the value of their lengthy education.
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Anonymous | 14-Dec-2011 10:11 pm
The problem is that the LPC needs changing. It's not fit for purpose and bears little relation to actual legal practice. However, trying to merge it into a TC and then compress the two is just dumbing down pure and simple. There should still be an LPC year but not in its current format.
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In-house | 15-Dec-2011 12:09 pm
This is a good idea.
Not sure what LPC Dude did, I did the BBP course and do not believe a year spent in activities such as memorising the boxes in a TR1 form and board minutes as well as reviewing criminal law added much to my commercial quality, training contract and non law at Cambridge was much better for that.
We should give the students a break, they have already done their degrees, which are much more important and will need to save up to buy a house - if lucky enough to be in the regions/ have family/ ever retire...
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Trim the fat | 15-Dec-2011 4:53 pm
Both the LPC and PSC are a fantastic waste of time and money, merely providing nerds an extended window of opportunity to show off their academic-pedantry in front of a classroom of individuals who, in the main, don't want to be there. Having gone through the LPC, PSC and TC, I have found that almost everything I was taught on the LPC is either not the way it's done in "real life" or is just simply irrelevant. There is so much subjectivity in law, you only really begin to learn how to operate in the practical field when you actually do it for yourself, picking up tips along the way which you either find useful or you don’t. Being lectured by people on how to do it their way without the real work in front of you is simply boring – especially when almost all of the lecturing is not useful.
The law degree is the theory, the TC is the driving test. Why do we need this c*ap in the middle?
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Anonymous | 16-Dec-2011 8:51 am
Anonymous @11:34, Eversheds has several level of lawyers and an associate is about 3-4 PQE. If you are told your work will go to an associate then that's the level you'll get. NQs are referred to as solicitors - if my memory serves me correctly.
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Anonymous | 16-Dec-2011 11:14 am
Please see the last para of this Lawyer Article:
http://www.thelawyer.com/eversheds-offers-alternative-to-partner-with-director-role/1009672.article
From 1 May 2012 all assistants will be called associates at Eversheds.
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