Freshfields, Macfarlanes and White & Case have revealed their trainee retention rates for the spring.
Cracking open the champagne, Macfarlanes has announced that it has made offers to all six of its trainees, with all of them accepting. Huzzah. Sean Lavin, head of graduate recruitment at Macfarlanes said of the 100% score "we regard our trainees as the future talent of the firm and retaining them on qualifying is an important objective for us". The fuzzy feeling continues as NQs will start on a tasty £75,000.
The silver circle firm has had a good run, having scored 92% in autumn 2017 (with the remaining 8% offered fixed term contracts), 100% in spring 2017 and 85% in autumn 2016.
Pouring a cold bottle of prosecco, White & Case has revealed a trainee retention score of 81% as it has made offers to 13 out of its 16 trainees, with all the positions being accepted. Justin Benson who heads the trainee solicitor said "our demand for English law qualified lawyers continues to grow in London and across our offices globally". As is the case with many of the US firms, the NQs will be paid a whopping six-figure salary, as they pocket £105,000.
The US firm has scored well in recent retention rates, with 83% being kept on in autumn 2017, 88% in spring 2017 and 75% in autumn 2016.
| A trainee who isn't kept on works diligently until the end |
Opening the office cava, Freshfields has unveiled a score of 74%, as it offered positions to 32 out of its 42 trainees, with 31 of them accepting. Farah Ispahani, the trainee development partner acknowleged that the result wasn't stellar as he said "as ever, our retention rates vary across each intake as we balance a number of different factors when determining the offers that we make to individuals". The NQs will start on a decent salary of £85,000.
The Magic Circle firm posted a score of 66% in autumn 2017, 84% in spring 2017 and 95% in autumn 2016,