Three of the five firms in the City Legal Practice Course (LPC) consortium have reduced their 2009-10 maintenance grants in the wake of the launch of BPP Law School's new fast-track course.

The streamlined LPC, which was approved by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority in January and launched last month, runs over just seven-and-a-half months rather than the previous length of 10.

Future trainees at consortium firms Lovells, Slaughter and May, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Norton Rose and Herbert Smith all take study the LPC at BPP, and the move to cut the duration of the course has prompted three of the firms to revise their maintenance grants.

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