Law firms have been given the green light to offer training contracts a year earlier following a change to the graduate recruitment code.
Under the old version of the voluntary code, firms had to wait until students were in their final year at university before offering them a training contract and students could be required to reply after four weeks. From September, that arrangement is being scrapped and firms will be able to make offers at any point after students begin their penultimate year. But students can't be made to decide before 15 September in their final year. So instead of a four week window, those who now receive an offer at the earliest possible stage will have a year to mull it over and accumulate other Faustian invitations.
When the code lost the Solicitors Regulation Authority as a signatory in March, grad rec partners predicted its death and warned of a race to the bottom with firms recruiting talent earlier and earlier. That may prove to be wide of the mark, but the changes do appear to be an attempt to keep the code alive, by putting code-compliant firms on a more equal footing with non-compliant firms. Max Harris, chair of the Junior Lawyers Division, which is a signatory of the code, said that some code-compliant firms, "found that by the time they made their offers, applicants had already accepted offers from other [non-compliant] firms". The revisions mean compliant firms can now make offers (though not require them to be accepted) as soon as they spot talent on their vacation schemes, rather than having to wait around until 1 September holding their missives in their hands.
Whether that is sufficient to prevent firms abandoning the code remains to be seen. Harris, a Baker & McKenzie associate, said that while the old version was "out of date and no longer reflected modern recruitment practices", there was still "widespread support for a code which offers best practice guidance on recruitment for trainee solicitors".
Students can enjoy the new code here.
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Under the old version of the voluntary code, firms had to wait until students were in their final year at university before offering them a training contract and students could be required to reply after four weeks. From September, that arrangement is being scrapped and firms will be able to make offers at any point after students begin their penultimate year. But students can't be made to decide before 15 September in their final year. So instead of a four week window, those who now receive an offer at the earliest possible stage will have a year to mull it over and accumulate other Faustian invitations.
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A cradlesnatcher yesterday |
When the code lost the Solicitors Regulation Authority as a signatory in March, grad rec partners predicted its death and warned of a race to the bottom with firms recruiting talent earlier and earlier. That may prove to be wide of the mark, but the changes do appear to be an attempt to keep the code alive, by putting code-compliant firms on a more equal footing with non-compliant firms. Max Harris, chair of the Junior Lawyers Division, which is a signatory of the code, said that some code-compliant firms, "found that by the time they made their offers, applicants had already accepted offers from other [non-compliant] firms". The revisions mean compliant firms can now make offers (though not require them to be accepted) as soon as they spot talent on their vacation schemes, rather than having to wait around until 1 September holding their missives in their hands.
Whether that is sufficient to prevent firms abandoning the code remains to be seen. Harris, a Baker & McKenzie associate, said that while the old version was "out of date and no longer reflected modern recruitment practices", there was still "widespread support for a code which offers best practice guidance on recruitment for trainee solicitors".
Students can enjoy the new code here.
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