Law firms can now offer training contracts to second years

Aug 14, 2015

Written By Sofia Gymer, Editor, AllAboutLaw.co.uk

The Graduate Recruitment Code has been revamped in a bid to meet employers’ needs and to match the “modern recruitment process”.

Currently graduates cannot be offered a training contract before September 1 of their final year, but from the start of this coming recruitment period firms will be able to make offers to undergrads from September 1 of their second year.

The voluntary code is a protective measure, designed to relieve undergraduates in the UK of the pressure of applying to training contracts early on in their studies.

Jonathan Smithers, president of the Law Society previously said: “The code outlines a fair and transparent process for firms and potential trainees to follow and allows firms to compete for candidates on a level playing field.

“Crucially, it enables solicitor trainees to explore the possible career options available to them before making a commitment to a particular employer.”

However, with this new development, first years will too be under pressure to fight their corner in the already exceedingly competitive application process.

The announcement follows the joining of the Law Society as a signatory to the code, replacing the Solicitors Regulation Authority (“SRA”), which removed itself in May ’15.

Signatories are:

The Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS)
The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR)
The Junior Lawyers Division (JLD)
The Law Society of England and Wales

The revised code advises that:

Applications

Employers can set their application deadline whenever they like as long as it’s not before the penultimate year of an undergraduate's degree.

Offers

Can be made to students at any point during the student's penultimate year, or after. For LLB students, that’s any time after September 1 of their second year.

Training Contract Acceptance

Students can accept offers at any point after they are made, but are not obliged to accept (nor should they be put under pressure to accept) before a deadline of 15 September in their final year (or four weeks after an offer has been made, whichever is later).

Post-Acceptance

Once a student has accepted an offer they have to withdraw from the process at all other employers.

It will be interesting to see the development of the recruitment process and its impact upon students following these revisions. The code is and remains a voluntary code of ‘best practice’, which firms do not have to legally have to adhere to – there will be no disciplinary action if they do not. However, it is largely frowned upon to reject to comply.

The worry is that more unscrupulous firms will be further encouraged to push the boundaries of the advisory limitations, behaviour which would infringe upon the benefit of the code to both students and other employers.

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