Training: four providers asked to pitch for revised course




Five City firms have unveiled plans for a major overhaul of their bespoke legal practice course (LPC), just days after the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) launched a consultation on significant changes to the training regime.



The City LPC consortium - made up of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith, Lovells, Norton Rose and Slaughter and May - has invited four LPC providers to submit proposals for developing a revised course.



The invitation came shortly after the SRA launched a consultation into the future structure of the LPC. Along with lighter touch regulation, the consultation proposes changes to the way electives are studied and to allow candidates to seek exemptions from parts of the course (see [2007] Gazette, 1 February, 8).



The SRA plans to have the new regime in place by September 2009, but is happy for providers to seek authorisation to run a course that meets the new requirements a year early.



Dominic Stuttaford, the partner with responsibility for the LPC at Norton Rose, said devising and introducing a new course required a long lead-time and September 2008 was now just 18 months away.



He added: 'We're not trying to jump the gun on the findings of the consultation, but we're caught bet-ween a rock and a hard place - leaving it too late or jumping too early.'



Louise Stoker, head of training at Slaughter and May, agreed that speed was of the essence. 'We want to remain at the forefront of legal education, leading the way rather than being reactive to developments that happen beyond our control.'



Current provider BPP, Nottingham at Kaplan Law School, the Inns of Court School of Law and the College of Law have been asked to pitch.



BPP chief executive Peter Crisp said it welcomed the SRA consultation. He added: 'Greater flexibility will improve students' quality of experience and allow them to emerge from college as more rounded lawyers.'



Jonathan Rayner