The much talked about 'City' Legal Practice Course (LPC) opened its doors to its first intake in September this year and now it is just a matter of time before students and law firms see whether all the hype that surrounded its introduction was justified.

The course emerged as a result of grumblings in the City that the existing LPC was irrelevant to City practice, lacked intellectual challenge and had little emphasis on black letter law.

In response, a consortium of eight City firms – Slaughter & May, Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters & Alliance, Lovells, Herbert Smith and Norton Rose – joined forces and came up with their own tailor-made version.