The traditional 18-month legal training programme is in a state of flux. Since the summer of 2005, alterations in the application of litigation experience have been at the forefront of the debate on legal education training. The result has been ‘fast-track’ training courses in litigation. Run by the main legal education providers, these courses are aimed at giving trainees an introduction to litigation in a fraction of the original six-month training seat period.
This development comes as UK firms’ litigation departments struggle against the pressures of corporate departments wanting as many trainees as possible to qualify into corporate. The current dearth of newly-qualified associates means the competition for trainees within law firms must be intense.
