Business may be picking up for most law firms, but it seems things are far from rosy at Beachcroft. The firm has asked a third of its trainees, who were meant to be starting in two months' time, to defer their training contracts for a year. And it has prematurely ended the search for its 2012 trainee intake.
Ten students have apparently "volunteered" to defer for a year and four have agreed to take on paralegal positions, while others have reached "separate confidential arrangements" with the firm. While trainee deferrals have been a feature of the market over the past couple of years, it had looked like the trend had passed. So just what is going on at Beachcroft?
The firm says that it's had a "solid year", but it has taken on several laterals and is changing its structure, and didn't want to risk being unable to offer NQ positions to large numbers of trainees. A spokeswoman added that "obviously these deferrals have had a knock-on effect for September 2011 and subsequently 2012. Because it is likely that we will fill the training places for 2012 with deferrals, we have cancelled the vacation placement scheme which was due to run in June/July 2010. We have also closed the system to applications for 2012 training contracts." So, it's hello laterals, tough luck trainees.
None of this is great news for those in the middle of the application process. Disgruntled wannabe Beachcrofters have contacted RollOnFriday to complain that they had spent a considerable amount of time on their online applications, only for the process to be cut short without any notice.
But anyway, all good training for life as a post-Lehmans lawyer,
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Ten students have apparently "volunteered" to defer for a year and four have agreed to take on paralegal positions, while others have reached "separate confidential arrangements" with the firm. While trainee deferrals have been a feature of the market over the past couple of years, it had looked like the trend had passed. So just what is going on at Beachcroft?
The firm says that it's had a "solid year", but it has taken on several laterals and is changing its structure, and didn't want to risk being unable to offer NQ positions to large numbers of trainees. A spokeswoman added that "obviously these deferrals have had a knock-on effect for September 2011 and subsequently 2012. Because it is likely that we will fill the training places for 2012 with deferrals, we have cancelled the vacation placement scheme which was due to run in June/July 2010. We have also closed the system to applications for 2012 training contracts." So, it's hello laterals, tough luck trainees.
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The trainee entrance at Beachcroft yesterday |
None of this is great news for those in the middle of the application process. Disgruntled wannabe Beachcrofters have contacted RollOnFriday to complain that they had spent a considerable amount of time on their online applications, only for the process to be cut short without any notice.
But anyway, all good training for life as a post-Lehmans lawyer,