Terms of Training Contract

[BJPP]

Hi all,
I’ve just received my training contract offer to sign and it seems that although my firm will pay my LPC fees - it’s done retrospectively once I start in September 2022. I.e I need to foot the bill outright initially…

How common is this? I now find myself looking around for that spare £20k I left lying around…

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi all,
I’ve just received my training contract offer to sign and it seems that although my firm will pay my LPC fees - it’s done retrospectively once I start in September 2022. I.e I need to foot the bill outright initially…

How common is this? I now find myself looking around for that spare £20k I left lying around…

Not very common at all....

First time I have heard of this, although that might be because of the nature of the firms I know. It could be more common for smaller firms.

 

[Matt_96]

Hi all,
I’ve just received my training contract offer to sign and it seems that although my firm will pay my LPC fees - it’s done retrospectively once I start in September 2022. I.e I need to foot the bill outright initially…

How common is this? I now find myself looking around for that spare £20k I left lying around…

Yikes. That sounds pretty tough. If I were in your shoes I would maybe look into seeing if you could initially get the fees covered by a postgraduate student loan? Many of the LPCs are now MScs or LLMs (not real ones) just for funding purposes.

 

[BJPP]

Thanks Matt - did that for the GDL (I did an LLM QLD) so - nope! I was under the impression firms just paid and naturally you were liable to pay back the fees if you failed or left or whatever… but not this way around!

 

[Jessica Booker]

Thanks Matt - did that for the GDL (I did an LLM QLD) so - nope! I was under the impression firms just paid and naturally you were liable to pay back the fees if you failed or left or whatever… but not this way around!

Most firms that don't sponsor usually just recruit people later / during their LPC.

 

[Daniel Boden]

Hi all,
I’ve just received my training contract offer to sign and it seems that although my firm will pay my LPC fees - it’s done retrospectively once I start in September 2022. I.e I need to foot the bill outright initially…

How common is this? I now find myself looking around for that spare £20k I left lying around…

I've never heard of this approach...

Since you've already used up the postgraduate loan for your LLM, I'd go back to your firm and explain your situation and ask if there's any way they can make an exception for your circumstances. I highly doubt you're the first person to have this issue with them so, hopefully, they can find a way to allow you to receive the money upfront considering they'll have already budgeted for you.

Fingers crossed all works out!

 

[BJPP]

Not very common at all....

First time I have heard of this, although that might be because of the nature of the firms I know. It could be more common for smaller firms.

Without being indiscrete it’s a mid-sized London full-service firm. Top 100 not magic circle - more West End. I’m hoping it’ll be a case of “ok that’s not an ideal sitch for me - how about this instead”. I’m telling myself that it’s still a good problem to have as ultimately I have secured funding. I guess they’re asking me to hold the risk of not passing/dropping out…which I can mitigate by agreeing to different terms. Anyway thanks for your time!

 

[Jessica Booker]

Without being indiscrete it’s a mid-sized London full-service firm. Top 100 not magic circle - more West End. I’m hoping it’ll be a case of “ok that’s not an ideal sitch for me - how about this instead”. I’m telling myself that it’s still a good problem to have as ultimately I have secured funding. I guess they’re asking me to hold the risk of not passing/dropping out…which I can mitigate by agreeing to different terms. Anyway thanks for your time!

A lot of firms have terms to claw back the money if people fail or renege on a training contract offer. Some even will claw back money if the individual doesn’t stay on beyond qualification.

It just is a slightly odd situation to say they will only retrospectively fund. I am assuming they don't give you a maintenance grant either? It's so restrictive - they must lose out talent given the lack of self funding options there are if you haven't got the bank of mum and dad.

 

[BJPP]

There is a £5k grant!? So they pay the grant but then not the fees up front - at least according to the current terms. I’m going to call Monday and see if they’re willing to change since as you rightly state - unless you have lots of private wealth (or can get a postgrad loan) finding £18k all of a sudden is um, a tall order!

 

[Jessica Booker]

There is a £5k grant!? So they pay the grant but then not the fees up front - at least according to the current terms. I’m going to call Monday and see if they’re willing to change since as you rightly state - unless you have lots of private wealth (or can get a postgrad loan) finding £18k all of a sudden is um, a tall order!

If not, a few things to ask them:

- do they have a preferential rate with a particular institution?

- can you do the LPC at any institution?

- will they pay back any fees or is it capped?

 

[BJPP]

Thanks for that - super helpful.

 

[BJPP]

Firm got back to me and said they’d pay. They also don’t care where I do my LPC and don’t care about electives “we see it as a chance for you to explore areas of the law you’re really interested in rather than feeling like you need to fit in with our objectives. We’re a full service firm so it’s likely there will be crossover whatever you choose”. Hallelujah.