BLP is asking City trainees to volunteer for a seat in its Manchester office so they can "be the best they can be".

A source got in touch with most of the legal press to claim that BLP was "experiencing a very high turnover in staff" in Manchester and had "not been able to recruit anyone despite having tried to hire since January". While the firm has increased its headcount from 21 when it opened in 2014 to 80, the source suggested that BLP was bulking up the office with trainees by guaranteeing NQ jobs to anyone who dared venture north.

The firm said it had not promised a job on qualification, but confirmed that a "Manchester secondment" was currently available until September to trainees who had completed a core real estate seat in London. 

A spokesman said, "We’ve already had interest and expect to fill the seats in the coming days". That may be because BLP is making it explicit that shunning BLP's Northern Powerhouse would be frowned upon. "We believe that in order for our lawyers to be the best they can be," said the spokesman, "they need to have an in-depth understanding of the market-leading work being done in Manchester". No doubt all the associates and partners will be commuting north soon too, then.

  A one way ticket, the regulation survival kit and Bob's your uncle. 

Manchester office employees have been able to apply for two training contracts there since February, which will commence in September. Work will be pooled rather than seat-based, with the pessimistic source saying it was because Manchester had "a lack of areas to provide seats" which "has led to internal concerns and scepticism about whether BLP Manchester is in a position to begin the Training Contract in September and the quality of the Training Contract being offered”.

A BLP spokesman said the pooling system was "offered so that our trainees get exposure to a wide variety of work across the Firm, helping to develop their understanding of the work BLP does". He said, "We regularly look at how we set up our training contracts to give trainees the best quality training".
Tip Off ROF

Comments

Anonymous 07 April 17 10:04

The quality of the decidedly "small-time" management in Manchester might also have something to do with this.