Responding to TC offer

[lawgrad123445]

Hi everyone, I have just received an extremely lucrative training contract offer, but not perhaps an ideal choice because I feel that it leans extremely heavily in a particular practice that I am still rather unsure about, plus I am interviewing for a summer internship, which I think may be a better suited firm. I was therefore planning to make further applications in any case in June, but I asked about the deadline to respond to the offer, and I was told that I had to respond in two weeks. This seems like a rather short response time frame for me, was wondering if there are any regulations surrounding how long a candidate is allowed to make a decision.

Alternatively, would it possible/is it market practice to accept a TC offer before reneging at a later point, and if so what are the consequences that flow from that? Would love to speak to someone with direct knowledge of this thanks!

 

[HopefulFutureTrainee]

To the best of my knowledge, you can renege an offer. Usually the problem is if they have made any payments towards LPC/GDL/SQE etc in which case you will probably have to repay them. Hope this helps!

 

[TC fiend]

You can renege, but as stated above it becomes tricky once money changes hands. That said, if you get an offer from your preferred firm, you could ask them to reimburse the other firm.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi everyone, I have just received an extremely lucrative training contract offer, but not perhaps an ideal choice because I feel that it leans extremely heavily in a particular practice that I am still rather unsure about, plus I am interviewing for a summer internship, which I think may be a better suited firm. I was therefore planning to make further applications in any case in June, but I asked about the deadline to respond to the offer, and I was told that I had to respond in two weeks. This seems like a rather short response time frame for me, was wondering if there are any regulations surrounding how long a candidate is allowed to make a decision.

Alternatively, would it possible/is it market practice to accept a TC offer before reneging at a later point, and if so what are the consequences that flow from that? Would love to speak to someone with direct knowledge of this thanks!

The voluntary code of best recruitment practice for trainees suggests a minimum of four weeks to consider an offer unless the start date for legal education or training is fairly immediate.

However, the code is completely voluntary. As the firm are not sticking to it, there is absolutely no reason for you to either. So you could accept, and then renege as others have mentioned. They are right that it gets tricky from the point you receive any funding, but that could start as soon as you start onboarding for either the GDL/LPC/SQE courses though (money does not have to exchange for that) and therefore if you find yourself having to complete onboarding forms for any of these course, be mindful you may be financially committed/liable for the costs of the course if you were to then renege on them.

I wouldn’t advise getting one firm reimbursing the other though - it’s your responsibility to sort out, not theirs.