The battle for the best students intensified this week after City firm Simmons & Simmons increased its maintenance grants for trainees to £7,500.

The increase for trainees on the legal practice course means Simmons & Simmons has become the highest-paying City firm. The rise – effective from September this year – also puts it on a par with many of the London offices of leading US firms, which traditionally take on far fewer trainees.


Simmons & Simmons has also increased its maintenance grants for trainees studying for the graduate diploma in law to £6,500 in London and £5,000 elsewhere.


Managing partner Mark Dawkins said: ‘We are sending out a strong message that Simmons & Simmons attracts and values the very best trainees in the profession. We advise high-calibre clients and we need the best lawyers to work for them on some of the largest and most complex transactions across the world.’


Whether other top City firms will fall in line remains to be seen. A spokeswoman for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which pays a grant of £7,250, said: ‘We believe this is a very competitive figure and we have no plans to review it.’


Linklaters partner Simon Firth said it had raised its grant for LPC students to £7,000 last September to meet concerns about the high cost of living in London, but added that the firm always keeps the level under review. ‘It is a competitive market [for potential trainees],’ he said. ‘Even in the depths of the recession, we were still competing for the top students.’


Simmons & Simmons has, meanwhile, been shortlisted for the National Council for Work Experience’s annual awards in the ‘over 250 employees’ category – the only law firm to be selected.


It is up against BP, 3M UK, Procter & Gamble, and the National Grid for the award, which is intended to recognise employers that provide valuable opportunities for students and fulfilling work placements.


In common with many other firms, Simmons & Simmons runs two four-week summer vacation schemes – principally for students in their penultimate year of university, whether they are law or non-law undergraduates. Participants share an office with a lawyer, and are treated as trainee solicitors as much as possible. They are also paid during their time at the firm.


Graduate recruitment partner Nick Benwell said: ‘[We have] been working hard to make work experience part of the fabric of the firm. Not only does it give students a step up but it really benefits us.’