Squire Sanders Hammonds has become the first law firm to sign up to BPP Law School's fast-track Legal Practice Course (LPC) outside the five-firm City LPC Consortium comprising Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith, Hogan Lovells, Norton Rose and Slaughter and May.

The decision means future trainees at the transatlantic firm's UK arm will start the seven-month course from this September. During the time between the course finishing and joining Squire Sanders Hammonds, trainees will take a three-month client secondment from May to July.

The decision to give all trainees a secondment comes after the firm last year sent some future trainees, whose contracts had been deferred as a result of the economic downturn, to clients including various financial institutions.

The trainees will be given three days of training before starting the secondments to prepare them for the sector and client they are joining.

London-based recruitment partner Mike Butler said: "This follows on from our deferral programme last year whereby future trainees were seconded to clients' legal departments before joining the firm. Those who went on client secondments have noticeably increased their level of business acumen, which has really benefited them during their training contracts. The feedback from clients, trainees and the business alike has been excellent."

The news comes after BPP last month announced it would be opening up the fast-track LPC to all students. For students without a contract, fees are the same as for the standard LPC, at £12,500, with a 2:1 degree the minimum entry requirement.