City firm Ashurst established a new benchmark for student maintenance grants this week by announcing it will pay its future trainees £7,500 per academic year.

The amount will be paid to prospective trainees on the legal practice course (LPC) and the graduate diploma in law (GDL), wherever they are based. It is 50% more than Ashurst previously paid for the LPC and 66% more than it paid for the GDL.


As a result Ashurst has become the top-paying City firm, leapfrogging Simmons & Simmons, which earlier this month increased its maintenance grants for students on the LPC to £7,500, and on the GDL to £6,500 in London and £5,000 elsewhere (see [2006] Gazette, 23 February, 35).


Nick Avery, Ashurst’s training principal and a partner in its finance practice, said: ‘We sat down and came up with a number we thought was appropriate. We want students to come to us because they want to work for Ashurst and not because they are getting an extra £500, but we also want to attract the right people.’