Slaughter and May has increased the maintenance grant it offers to its future trainees while they complete the Legal Practice Course (LPC) to £10,000 with immediate effect.

Previously, the firm offered £7,000 to LPC students to keep them afloat while they are studying.

Slaughters is following the lead of Linklaters, Clifford Chance and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which both upped the size of their grants last month.

Future Slaughters trainees who started the course in January 2018 will also benefit from the increase.

The other member of the magic circle, Allen & Overy, currently has a maintenance grant of £7,000.

The last major round of maintenance grant boosts came in 2013, when Linklaters led the way in increasing them from £5,000 to £7,000.

All five firms pay LPC and Graduate Diploma in Law fees in full.