Leading City law firms select BPP to prepare for LPC reform

The five leading City law firms who make up the City LPC Consortium - Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith, Lovells, Norton Rose and Slaughter and May – today announce that they have selected BPP to continue working with them in developing the Legal Practice Course (LPC) in readiness for the regulatory changes that are expected to come into effect in September 2009.

The announcement follows a tender process conducted by the Consortium firms. The five firms envisage that there will be significant changes to the framework within which the LPC operates as a consequence of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s review of the content and structure of the LPC. The firms therefore decided to seek a range of views on the potential impact of the proposals in order to allow them to consider the options for their future trainees.

While the Consortium firms were impressed by the quality of proposals that were put to them by a number of LPC providers, they have decided that the best option is to continue working exclusively with BPP in preparing for the next phase of change.

The Consortium firms have worked successfully with BPP over the last two years in developing a new and innovative LPC that was launched in September 2006. This course, which will continue to be run by BPP until June 2009, has been very well received by both the students and the firms.

In preparing for the new LPC regime over the next two years, the Consortium firms will be able to combine their depth and breadth of expertise across practice areas with BPP’s leading capabilities in legal training and business education and its specific experience of working with the Consortium firms.