Advocacy training courses attract the interest of mid-sized commercial firmsMid-sized corporate and commercial law firms aresigning up to advocacy training courses in a drive to claim work which is traditionally outsourced to the junior Bar and take advantage of extended rights of audience.

Finers Stephens Innocent (FSI) has become the first firm in a second City consortium for post-graduatetraining, following its decision to sign up to an advocacy pilot scheme at Nottingham Law School.Eight top City firms - which have also recently set up their own legal practice course - already send their lawyers on a similar Nottingham course, but they have also opted for trial advocacy modules, includingpreparation for trial and case analysis and casemanagement.

The second tier firms are concentrating on pre-trial advocacy.The course for the second group of firms will mirror the training programme for the big eight - Slaughter and May, Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields,Linklaters & Alliance, Herbert Smith, Lovells and Norton Rose - which involves mixed groups of lawyers from all the firms.FSI became the first firm to sign up on Friday, while DJ Freeman, Masons and Scottish firm McGrigor Donald are believed to be in discussions with Nottingham.

John Hewitt, FSI's head of litigation, said all the firm's litigators will be encouraged to attend a two-day course covering interlocutory applications and case management.Mr Hewitt said: 'We should be doing more interlocutory and trial applications.

Clients are driven by value for money and they hate seeing duplication of costs and paying combined charge-out rates.

We are looking at ways we can differentiate our service in a moreeffective way.' City firm Taylor Joynson Garrett has also gone forNottingham training in trial advocacy, drafting andeffective legal writing, while Birmingham firm Wragge & Co is sending its lawyers on a drafting course.Suzanne Fine, head of business development atNottingham Law School, said she was hoping to persuade FSI and others to sign up to trial advocacy as well.Anne Mizzi