Pinsent Masons offers NQs £10k to defer
25 September 2009
Pinsent Masons has told 11 of its NQs that the start of their jobs will be delayed by six months - offering them only a £10k loan to tide them over.

The firm kept on 60% of its qualifiers this year (putting it in the middle of RollOnFriday's qualification table) but a third of those will have to wait six months before starting. And while they will receive an interest-free loan of £10k until their first pay cheque, that will have to be paid off to the rather hefty tune of £400 a month over the following two years.

While the firm is offering a  £2,000 "welcome back" bonus to all the April starters, but it seems pretty tight to make the £10k repayable, rather than real compensation for the enforced 6 months of thumb-twiddling. Still, it's a marked improvement on the big fat nothing that both Camerons and Mayer Brown have offered.

Where Mayer Brown and Camerons lawyers will get their loans

A spokesman for Pinsents said that the scheme had had a positive response from NQs. 

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