Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton's City arm has sealed an agreement with the College of Law that will see the College become the firm's exclusive provider of the Graduate Diploma in Law, the Legal Practice Course (LPC) and the Professional Skills Course (PSC).

The agreement will start in September 2009 when Cleary will send 12 of its future trainees to the College for the LPC.

The trainees will be able to study in any of the College's centres around the UK, although most are expected to attend the Moorgate centre, where the LPC and PSC electives will be taught in firm-specific groups.

The deal marks the first time that a firm has signed an exclusive deal with the College of Law for all three stages of training, including the PSC which is studied during the training contract itself.

Shaun Goodman, graduate recruitment partner at Cleary, told Legal Week: "We found our trainees were arriving with different levels of knowledge and took the view that doing all three courses through a single provider would let us remove duplication and also better tailor our own internal training."

Nigel Savage (pictured), chief executive of the College, said: "This is an exciting development for us and reinforces the profession's move to customised training. Ensuring relevance to the workplace is at the heart of what we do."

An increasing numbers of firms have been opting for exclusive LPC courses with either the College or its rival BPP. In May Weil Gotshal & Manges signed a deal with the College for its LPC students that will also start in September next year.

The College also has exclusive agreements for LPC training with firms including Clifford Chance, Linklaters and Allen & Overy. BPP, meanwhile, has agreements with firms including the City consortium of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Slaughter and May, Herbert Smith, Lovells and Norton Rose.