City law firms pay trainees £10,000 to take a gap year

City law firms are paying graduates thousands of pounds not to start work for a year after being hit by the recession.

Recruits are being offered up to £10,000 to defer the start of their training contracts.

Norton Rose has asked 55 trainees to postpone starting, at a cost of £550,000, as long as they do something "meaningful and constructive" with their time off.

Penningtons is offering its trainees £5,000 to defer, although it is not putting any conditions on how the money or time is spent.

Other firms offering £5,000 for deferring include Baker & McKenzie and DLA Piper. A partner at Norton Rose said: "Anyone who doesn't take this offer up ought to have their training contract revoked for stupidity."

Matthew Rhodes of legal community website RollOnFriday.com said that trainees cost leading City firms around £250,000 over the course of their twoyear training contracts.

The starting salary for a Norton Rose trainee is £35,700. He said: "Law firms are by nature very cautious and clearly this is an economic decision. The firms are offering money for trainees to go away and have a bit of fun while the economy calms down."

Mr Rhodes added that the firms invest heavily in their trainees. "The partners have to go to law fairs and take time interviewing and training. Trainees' salaries go up every six months and they have to be provided with an office, secretaries, gym membership, private healthcare and paid holidays.

"Law firms only get that huge investment back when the trainees qualify and start billing at an hourly rate. These deferral payments are not just about saving money now.

"They are about making sure there is enough quality work around to be able to keep trainees on when they qualify in two years' time and put them to work billing.

"If I was a Norton Rose trainee, I would be thinking, 'Great, 10 grand to bum around for a year and a guaranteed job at the end of it!'"

A spokeswoman for Penningtons said five out of 20 trainees due to join this year and next year have already agreed to defer for a year.

She added: "As a result of the economic situation, we have asked our trainees to consider postponing their training contracts for a year. There are no criteria as to what they spend the money on.

"A couple of them are using it on extra time travelling, which is quite exciting for them."

The Norton Rose offer is open to trainees due to join in either September or January 2010. Spokesman Sean Twomey said: "We cannot ignore the economic downturn and we are not immune. This decision came as part of our business planning. But it is not compulsory and this is a win-win opportunity. The feedback from trainees has been very positive so far.

"Some of our trainees are looking into voluntary work with Operation Raleigh. Others want to learn a language and we would not be prescriptive about how they go about it.

"If they want to go travelling to South America to learn Spanish they can. We will be supportive of anything we feel will be beneficial to them and us.

"They cannot just do yoga for a year - though as far as I know nobody has suggested that."

Another leading law firm, Herbert Smith, has asked 79 of its trainees to push back their start date from September to March next year.

It is offering a financial incentive to defer and although the firm has refused to confirm the amount, it is thought to be more than £5,000.