The consortium behind the City Legal Practice Course (LPC) has collapsed, with five of the eight firms securing a deal to use BPP Law School exclusively as their LPC provider, Legal Week can reveal.

Slaughter and May, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith, Lovells and Norton Rose have signed an agreement to use BPP as their sole LPC provider when the three-way contract with Nottingham Law School and the Oxford Institute of Legal Practice (OILP) ends in June 2006.

In a separate move, Linklaters has secured a deal with the College of Law for it to handle its own specially tailored LPC.

Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy were still considering their options as Legal Week, went to press.

Slaughters executive partner Melvyn Hughes told Legal Week: "We came to the conclusion that it would be better to have all of our trainees located in one place. It is certainly no reflection on the quality of Nottingham or Oxford."

The news, however, will be galling for Nottingham and OILP. A source close to Nottingham said that it was asked by the new group to set up a dual role with BPP in London, but refused the offer for logistical reasons.

The shake-up is also known to be related to the Law Society's on-going Training Framework Review, which is due to report at the end of the year and will be used by the group to launch a new LPC course in September 2006.

The closely watched review is expected to allow LPC teaching to become more flexible and initial indications are that other qualifications, such as undergraduate and post-graduate degrees, may also become linked to the course.

BPP chief executive Peter Crisp said:

"We have lots of ideas under review at the moment and the outcome of the Law Society's review will be important."

Linklaters training partner Simon Firth commented: "This is a radical step in the development of legal training but a logical one. We firmly believe the closer to real practice and the more realistic training is, the more effective it will be."

The move overhauls the City LPC four years after its controversial launch. Many in the profession feared the venture, which is designed to bolster the commercial element in post-graduate training, would create a two-tier model for legal education.