As Wragges battled through its second redundancy consultation over the summer, it sensibly decided to shelter potential recruits from the bloodshed. Having enthusiastic students running around asking for work that is not there from people who might not be there for much longer doesn’t make a great deal of sense. Neither does it do to show those you are trying to attract to your firm what things look like when it gets messy. Unfortunately, by postponing the vacation schemes until September beyond the traditional training contract offer date, 30 per cent of students were either forced to drop out of the programme or just didn’t see the point anymore.

Meanwhile, Edwin Coe which bucked the industry trend and increased its turnover by six per cent in the 2008/09 financial year, has cancelled its autumn vacation scheme. According to The Lawyer the firm denied it had anything to do with cost cutting, citing lack of interest instead. Given the firm was only offering 6 places on their autumn scheme last year, we would be amazed if there are not more than 6 students out there who would literally break your arm off to get some legal work experience at the moment.

Wragges moves summer vac schemes to September [The Lawyer]