The one sizeable US firm in London that has never had a training contract – Simpson Thacher & Bartlett – has hit upon a way to take full advantage of new rules that make it possible to train lawyers on the job without forking out for graduate recruitment budgets.

The rules were updated with the introduction of the Solicitors Qualification Exam, which was first mooted in 2015. Numerous predictions were made about what it might mean for the future of legal education, including that law firms, no longer required to offer a traditional two-year training contract, would do away with them entirely in favour of less costly qualification routes.

It was suggested that the US firms in London in particular, less institutionally familiar with the concept of a trainee, might be swift to get rid of them.

While alternatives to the training contract are now commonplace, the largest commercial firms have all retained theirs. Simpson Thacher, on the other hand, has been making full use of the new SQE rules that makes it possible train lawyers without spending money on recruitment and trainee salaries.

All it needs to do is scout its brightest and most willing paralegals and pay for their SQE assessment fees while they continue to do their day-to-day work.

It has emerged that Simpson Thacher has two paralegals who have qualified via this route, with the firm understood to have picked up their course fees, as well as exam fees. Once qualified, the paralegals are given a month’s trial to evaluate whether they have gained enough skills to be offered a job as an associate.

As far as The Lawyer is aware, one has moved on to an associate role so far, with two more paralegals in the pipeline working towards qualification as lawyers, and a third paralegal having recently qualified.

There has long been chatter as to whether or not Simpson Thacher would introduce training contracts, as it remained the odd one out in a large group of American firms that do. The Lawyer previously reported that out of the US Top 30 firms in London, it was the only firm to offer no UK training contract.

To date, not having a training contract has not hampered Simpson Thacher’s London progress. Its London office has grown to match the size of Baker McKenzie’s, despite Baker McKenzie topping the US firms in London table 10 years ago.

Simpson Thacher’s London managing partner Jason Glover said: “While Simpson Thacher does not have a formal trainee program, we do seek to employ significant numbers of graduates each year as paralegals, thereby providing those graduates with extensive legal experience ahead of them deciding whether or not to pursue a long term career in law. We believe that this provides an attractive alternative career path to the traditional trainee program.”