LPC life in London

[voluminous]

Hi all,

Dd has gotten herself a training contract with a law firm. She has to do the LPC in London for 7 months (the fast one). She gets a grant for £10,000.

We don't live in London so she would have to find a room to live in. I have read online that it is very difficult to get a contract for less than 12 months for flats. So looks like she will have to sign up for the year. Are there any recommended areas?

She has a small amount of savings, and we can give her a bit of money. But we had hoped that after uni we would stop funding her.

Do most people do the LPC and then work the remaining time in order to make some money to live on?

I think some posters, be that lawyers from other firms, or just the public, can get spiky when it comes to US trainees/juniors. The standard the required to get in at a firm like that is far far higher than is needed firms in the regions or even the silver circle.

The kind of person who is driven enough to get into the elite US firms are going to understand that the hours will be long. And certainly able to quit if they decide it isn't for them. Granted, some may take on a large mortgage too soon, but that is the same for many professions.

@corvalia
Firms in the provinces are not paying £160,000 at 25. You are getting £100,000 or £110,000 upon qualification at Magic Circle now. Silver is presumably less. The people DD knows earning mega bucks at American firms before they are 30 are super bright and have done the LLM in commercial law at Cambridge. They don’t take the quickest route but are top flight people. The work hours are very long but you know that before application.

Lawyers love to whinge. It’s a favourite pastime. If it’s not about hours, or clients, it’s pay.

Let’s face it. To become a lawyer at a provincial firm you probably need a 2.1 from say Manchester or Swansea. You work 9-6.

To become a lawyer at US firms in london you probably need a first from Cambridge, and even then, the firms will only take the exceptional (be that grades or experience)

Magic circle firms pump hundreds and hundreds of trainees out a year. Great for sponsorship but long term prospects are grim.

The Magic Circle firms don’t take the numbers they did. 100 per firm or less is about the norm. Not sure what pumped out means but the highest paid trainees are not huge in number and hundreds don’t leave or there would be none left.

Like a pp suggested, taking over a room in a flat or house share is likely to be more flexible on dates if your dd might not want to stay in London between the end of the LPC and starting her TC- spare room . com used to be a popular place to find rooms/flatmates

My son (who is doing the LPC But from home) visited a friend who is renting (near Hampstead or an area near there, with another LPC student and some trainee solicitors I think it is) but people live all over the place - it is not really like university where there are set places where people live.

If she has a gap between Feb and August she can just sign with a temp agency, She will get lots of experience in the City and a feel for the firms she may end up dealing with.