Thames Valley law firm, Morgan Cole, has cancelled its summer vacation scheme and is not accepting any applications for training contracts until 2010. According to the Lawyer , although the deadline for vacation schemes was 30 April, the firm will not be considering any application forms that have already been submitted.

Morgan Cole’s graduate recruitment website states: “It is therefore with regret that Morgan Cole’s Operational Management Team together with the firm’s Partners have, after much thought and deliberation over recent months, unfortunately come to the decision not to run our own summer vacation scheme or our graduate / trainee recruitment centre this year."

Meanwhile, City firm, Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, renowned for its commercial litigation and dispute resolution practices, has asked half of its September 2009 trainee intake to defer their start dates for six months. The firm requested that 10 out of 20 of its trainees defer offering £2,500 cash as part of the deal.