All our future trainee solicitors follow the SQE route to qualification. 

City Consortium Solicitor Training Programme (‘CCP’)

The CCP was developed in partnership with BPP Law School and five other global law firms (the City Consortium). Our trainee solicitors complete the CCP before joining the firm.

The CCP includes: 

  • preparation for the SQE1 (functioning legal knowledge) and SQE2 (practical skills) centralised assessments; and 
  • the bespoke Plus Programme, offering four “mini-seats” and the additional knowledge, skills, and professional behaviours necessary for a successful training contract with us.

The CCP runs in February and September each year and is delivered in-person, at BPP (London), with trainees joining the firm the following March and September respectively. The CCP is also an integrated master’s programme. This means that, on successful completion of the programme, students are awarded a Master of Laws in Legal Practice. 

PGDL Law Conversion Course

If you are a non-law student, you will be required to complete the full PGDL Law Conversion Course before commencing the CCP.

If you do not have a qualifying law degree or are completing, or have completed, your undergraduate law degree at a university outside of England and Wales, we may still require you to complete some modules of the Law Conversion Course (PGDL). If relevant, you will have the opportunity to discuss the required modules at the point of offer, and this will be covered in more detail in your offer letter.

You may study the PGDL Law Conversion Course in person at any BPP branch: Birmingham; Bristol; Cambridge; Leeds; London (Waterloo); or, Manchester.

Funding

We pay the course fees for the Law Conversion Course (PGDL) and the CCP and provide a maintenance grant of £12,000 for the Law Conversion Course (PGDL) and £20,000 for the CCP.

There is also an interest-free loan of up to £3,000 available to all new trainees once month before the start of their training contract, and an interest-free financial hardship loan of up to £3,000 available to our future trainees while they are at Law School. 

As the CCP is an integrated master’s course, UK students studying this course are also eligible for Student Finance England government loan funding, provided they have not already taken advantage of it for another master’s course.

Our route to qualification

  • Undergraduate degree
  • PGDL Law Conversion Course (non-law students only)
  • CCP - SQE1 Preparation Programme
  • SQE 1 Assessment
  • CCP - SQE 2 Preparation Programme
  • SQE 2 Assessment
  • City Consortium Plus Programme
  • Qualifying work experience i.e. the training contract (2 years)*
  • Qualified

*Our training contract is intended to provide you with the two years’ qualifying work experience required before you are eligible to apply to qualify as a solicitor. We will normally require anyone qualifying to a position as a solicitor with this firm to have completed our full two-year contract.

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