Clifford Chance (CC) has signed a deal with the College of Law to roll out an accelerated Legal Practice Course (LPC) for its incoming trainees.

The course will span seven months rather than the standard 10, and is due to go live in January 2012 for trainees joining the magic circle firm in August 2012.

The accelerated course will be provided by the College of Law and comes as trainees at Linklaters – which struck a similar deal with the college this year – prepare to start their accelerated LPC in January 2011.

College of Law business development director Sarah Hutchinson said: "The students on the accelerated course will be covering exactly the same syllabus, but they will not have the holidays allocated in the academic year.

"The main driver is to keep the momentum going between finishing the LPC and starting training contracts so that their learning is current."

The recent trend of magic circle firms offering accelerated LPCs has sparked criticism from some who claim it will create a two-tier training system for young lawyers.

CC HR head Tony King said: "I think the wish is to make sure that the programme is effective from both the students' and the firm's point of view. So far the feedback has been positive and I think this idea benefits both sides."

CC has two annual intakes of trainees in August and February.