LAW firms are competing to increase maintenance grants for future trainees on the Legal Practice Course (LPC). From next September Linklaters will raise its maintenance grants by 40 per cent. At the moment, Linklaters’ LPC students receive an annual grant of £5,000 if studying in London or Oxford and £4,500 if studying elsewhere. From September these maintenance grants will increase to £7,000 and £5,000 respectively.
Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Norton Rose, Dechert and White & Case also all plan to increase their LPC grants to £7,000, with Lovells planning an increase to £7,450. The London arm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton, the US firm, has said that it will increase its maintenance grants from £5,000 to £8,000 this September.
THE Solicitors Pro Bono Group is carrying out research into the sort of pro bono and clinical work undertaken in UK law schools. The results, which are expected shortly, will build on research in 2003 which showed that more than half of universities and law schools do some kind of pro bono work, ranging from a formal part of the curriculum to advice within students’ unions. The idea is to find out what makes this work successful and to support more universities to develop pro bono initiatives.