Reed Smith has teamed up with Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) to offer a new practice-based undergraduate law degree which will include a year long placement at the firm.

The four year LLB 'Law in Practice' course is intended to combine academic standards with commercial training for aspiring lawyers.

The degree is being made available to existing Queen Mary LLB students, with the first formal placements planned to take place in 2016-17.

Student will have to apply for a place on the new programme at the end of their first year, undergoing an 'eligibility assessment' before being invited on to special skills modules in the second year prior to the placement. The skills modules will also be made available for all QMUL second year law students.

Five successful students will be guaranteed a place in the first year, with Reed Smith hoping to increase that number to 10 in 2017-18.

"Although the work placement model exists in more technical degrees, there has never been a law degree at a Russell Group University with a practice-based emphasis," said Lucy Crittenden, graduate recruitment manager at Reed Smith. "We work with a number of different universities to support greater employability skills for students and our new degree with Queen Mary creates a blueprint to assist UK plc in the development of commercial and 'business-ready' students."

Three years ago, Reed Smith set up a version of the Legal Practice Course (LPC) with BPP Law School to include a greater degree of business teaching, resulting in a new a masters qualification: MA (LPC with Business).