RPC keeps 94% of its trainees

As firms begin to announce how many of their final seat trainees are being given jobs this year, RPC has confirmed an impressive 94% trainee retention rate, while Weil Gotshal & Manges is keeping on 100%.

15 out of RPC's intake of 16 applied for jobs, and all were accepted. The result continues a run of high retention rates for the firm, which only has one intake per year. Last September it retained 13 out of 16 trainees (81%), the year before 12 out of 15 (80%), and in Autumn 2011 all 13 qualifiers were kept on.

RPC Managing Partner Jonathan Watmough said it was "particularly pleasing" to be able to offer positions to everyone who applied, not least because the firm invested "a lot of time and money" turning them from nervous mistake machines into bundling heroes.

From first seat (l) to fourth seat (r), her journey was complete

Meanwhile, Dentons has improved hugely on last year's 68% rate. This September is is retaining 22 of 26 trainees (85%). And Weil Gotshal & Manges has managed even better, posting a perfect 100%. It is keeping on all eleven of its final seat trainees. They can stand their own celebratory round, since NQ salaries at the firm are an eye-watering £95,500.

For the latest snapshot of retention rates this year, click here. And please tell RollOnFriday if you know your firm's stats.

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Comments

Presumably RPC are now busily training their NQ's on the subtle art of how to ignore the other side, refuse any reasonable requests and obstruct the progress of cases as much as possible.

Retention rates do vary from year to year...yes 100% retention is better than less but it is not the whole story and since most associates will want to "bank" qualification and some initial PQE at their original firm if it is offered, even if they do not like what the 2 year training contract has shown them, maybe the "better" test would be not how many are kept on qualification but how many stay the course beyond an initial short term and a (very) generous pay hike on qualification......once qualified and working in a single department for the same individual partners on more regular basis, fracture lines may well arise......since associates know that with (some) experience they are more marketable than a NQ, maybe detailing the post 2-3 year retention figures would be more revealing: indeed maybe detailing how many trainees/NQ actually stay and make partner would be even more revealing. In the longer term, sometimes the real story is not about a particular firm not wanting to keep a particular number of members of staff on qualification but more about whether the members of staff actually want to stay in the firm.