Magic circle firm Linklaters has launched an accelerated legal practice course designed to cut four and a half months from the typical LPC course length.

The accelerated LPC, available to the firm’s trainees from January 2011, will take seven and a half months to complete. Linklaters said today that it redesigned the course after recent trainees questioned the need to spend a year studying its bespoke LPC.

The accelerated LPC will be run in January and July each year to accommodate the firm’s March and September trainee intakes.

Students will be paid a maintenance grant of £5,000. Those passing the shortened course will begin their training contracts in September 2011.

Simon Firth, trainee development partner at Linklaters, said: ‘We are excited to be able to introduce this new accelerated LPC, which has been designed following feedback from recent trainees. Going forward, it will mean there will be a shorter time between recruitment and joining the firm. Plus trainees will benefit from the continuity of learning they will gain, as they will join the firm straight after their LPC.’

The course begins with three weeks of online study, after which students spend four days in Linklaters’ London office to meet future colleagues, before being inducted at the College of Law. Full-time study begins the following week.