At least 12 major law firms are denying their trainees permanent employment on qualification and offering short term contracts instead.
RollOnFriday asked fifty leading firms if they were retaining NQs on fixed term contracts (FTCs). Only four firms failed to confirm one way or the other: Shoosmiths, Charles Russell, Shearman & Sterling and Clarke Willmott. So treat their silence as a bit suspicious.
But Field Fisher Waterhouse admitted that five of its 12 retained trainees qualifying this September will be on 12 month FTCs. There will also be four at DLA Piper, three at Irwin Mitchell and two apiece at Hogan Lovells, CMS Cameron McKenna and Eversheds and Pinsent Masons (which said the move was unusual and in response to very specific circumstances). CMS and the Shed's FTCs are for just six and three months respectively.
One NQ at each of Trowers & Hamlins, DAC Beachcroft, Mills & Reeve and Taylor Wessing will also be on a FTC, while Olswang's Global HR Director said, "We are unable to share the number of FTCs offered this year, but it is a solution that we have used in this and previous recruitment rounds to make sure we retain the best talent".
FFW Trainee Partner Edward Miller said two of the firm's short termers would be qualifying into departments in which they have not completed a training contract seat. He said the arrangement would give the pair "the opportunity to see if that's a practice area that they want to focus their careers on". And would give the department "a full chance to see the NQ in action". The rest are victims of "uncertainty as to future work levels 12+ months out".
Other firms were happy to try to distance themselves from the practice. A spokesman for White & Case said its recruitment process "is focussed on getting the right number of trainees to meet the needs of the business – simply, we do not recruit with the intention of not keeping trainees on".
The figures clearly show the emergence of a widespread two-tier system. Prospective trainees will now have to look that much more carefully at major firms' NQ retention figures to work out their realistic chances of a proper job.
Tip Off ROF
RollOnFriday asked fifty leading firms if they were retaining NQs on fixed term contracts (FTCs). Only four firms failed to confirm one way or the other: Shoosmiths, Charles Russell, Shearman & Sterling and Clarke Willmott. So treat their silence as a bit suspicious.
But Field Fisher Waterhouse admitted that five of its 12 retained trainees qualifying this September will be on 12 month FTCs. There will also be four at DLA Piper, three at Irwin Mitchell and two apiece at Hogan Lovells, CMS Cameron McKenna and Eversheds and Pinsent Masons (which said the move was unusual and in response to very specific circumstances). CMS and the Shed's FTCs are for just six and three months respectively.
One NQ at each of Trowers & Hamlins, DAC Beachcroft, Mills & Reeve and Taylor Wessing will also be on a FTC, while Olswang's Global HR Director said, "We are unable to share the number of FTCs offered this year, but it is a solution that we have used in this and previous recruitment rounds to make sure we retain the best talent".
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A trainee getting ftcked yesterday |
FFW Trainee Partner Edward Miller said two of the firm's short termers would be qualifying into departments in which they have not completed a training contract seat. He said the arrangement would give the pair "the opportunity to see if that's a practice area that they want to focus their careers on". And would give the department "a full chance to see the NQ in action". The rest are victims of "uncertainty as to future work levels 12+ months out".
Other firms were happy to try to distance themselves from the practice. A spokesman for White & Case said its recruitment process "is focussed on getting the right number of trainees to meet the needs of the business – simply, we do not recruit with the intention of not keeping trainees on".
The figures clearly show the emergence of a widespread two-tier system. Prospective trainees will now have to look that much more carefully at major firms' NQ retention figures to work out their realistic chances of a proper job.
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