SRA supports revolutionary new training programme

The SRA has backed a new training scheme which could slash the number of graduates recruited by City law firms. Devised by for-profit organisation Acculaw, trainees will be recruited from postgraduate law schools and seconded to firms and in-house legal departments on an ad hoc basis. The scheme is intended to allow firms more flexibility with their trainee intakes and to dramatically reduce their training budgets by removing some of the associated costs (eg, marketing costs and LPC fees) of recruiting future trainees while they are still at university.

Acculaw founder and CEO Susan Cooper told Lawyer2B: "Our model was developed to reduce volatility in the number of qualified lawyers available in the market. The traditional model is costly, inflexible and inefficient. We want to ensure that capable, talented graduates receive better opportunities to enter the legal profession by making training more attractive and commercially viable to firms and in-house legal departments."

According to Legal Week, Olswang is the first confirmed sign-up to the pilot scheme to accept Acculaw trainees. Director of HR Fiona Griffith told the publication: "We intend to use Acculaw for the provision of future trainees where internal demand for trainees fluctuates and exceeds the number of trainees that we have available through our normal recruitment methods. The time delays inherent in the trainee recruitment and selection process, and the lead times between recruitment and trainees joining and then qualifying, presents a real challenge in a market that requires firms to be nimble and responsive to clients' demands and to the associated resourcing requirements."