Time for a quick update on trainee retention rates for the Autumn, now that Nabarro and Herbert Smith Freehills have released their stats.

First up, Nabarro. Its 77% retention rate looks ropey compared to all the other firms on the board, but it's not as bad as it looks. That's partly because the others have done really, really well, but mainly because Nabarro's intake is small. It had 13 trainees, made offers to 11 and ten accepted. Each trainee it lost cost it 8%. The flipside is that, in March, it could post 100% for keeping a cohort of ten.

Of the ten new NQs, there's a significant lean to London, with seven qualifying in the capital and only two working in Sheffield and one in Manchester.

Because numbers are fun

Herbert Smith Freehills has also lost three trainees, but from a much larger, 37-strong intake. 35 applied for jobs and 34 received offers, all of whom accepted. Which leaves it with a very good 92% retention rate. That builds off the similarly impressive 93% rate for its March qualifiers, 39 of whom it retained.



On the evidence of the table, it's been an excellent year for the vast majority of trainees looking for NQ jobs in September, with a market-wide retention rate of 92%. So far - if you know your firm's, write in.