EXCLUSIVE Wombles trainee retention falls 10%

^{A third of the cohort will be Wombling free out of the firm.}

Womble Bond Dickinson is retaining 67% of its qualifying trainees this year.

Disconsolate sources voiced suspicions to RollOnFriday that the firm's retention rate was under 50% (do leak what's happening at your firm). However, rumours of WBD falling flat on retention proved to be exaggerated; albeit retention has dropped 10% from the firm's score of 77% last year.

WBD had a cohort of 27 this year (26 qualifying trainees and one additional SQE candidate). The firm offered 19 permanent roles and 18 of the brood accepted positions, including one who qualified earlier in March.

Those qualifying at Wombles will be on a NQ salary of £78k in London; £60k in Bristol; £55k in Leeds/Southampton; and £50k in Edinburgh/Plymouth/Newcastle.

WBD had been in discussions earlier this year to merge with BDB Pitmans but the deal fell through. The Wombles can claim bragging rights when it comes to retention (just about) as BDBP scored just 54% placing it bottom of the table.

A WBD spokesperson said: "This year's cohort of qualifying lawyers is a dedicated group that we are encouraged to see continue their career development and growth with Womble Bond Dickinson. This will provide us a strong pipeline of talented people for the future needs of the firm."

When asked about the dip, the spokesperson responded: "While we do acknowledge there has been a drop in overall retention rate when comparing this year's cohort to last year's, we are encouraged that those continuing with Womble Bond Dickinson represent a strong addition to our team and will not only safeguard future needs of the firm, but ensure we continue to provide our clients with high-quality service."

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Comments

Looking forward to the WBD PR team claiming they on 110% of their trainees and then downvoting this post 42 times. After all, they have form.

WBD also claim to have invented the legal website, so I’d treat what they say with caution

Looking forward to those with a professional animus against WBD posting negative comments against the firm and spam upvoting them.

Why doesn’t anyone want to join WBD, the law firm at the heart of the UK’s largest miscarriage of justice, which is said to have been linked to the deaths of 63 innocent people?

Their NQs aren’t that “dedicated” by the looks of the CV I was recently sent.

Trainee retention rates is the least of the Womble worries

Wombles should be celebrating 67% retention after the post office story, rather than wallowing in self pity (anon 8.51).

Statistically illiterate. It’s a drop of 13%. It’s fallen by 10 percentage POINTS (from 77% to 67%), but that is a 13% drop. (10/77)

To the PR boys. Two words . Post Office

The scene is set for all 18 WBD NQs to resign en masse in a gloriously choreographed stand against the behaviour of the firm in the Post Office scandal.

That lucky minority who have not been retained - do they know how lucky they are!

It will be interesting to see how the legacy of being at the centre of the worse miscarriage of justice will work through for the Wombles. Nowadays prospective trainees look to a firm to be much more than a cash generator. They look at ethics how they treat people. Wombles has fallen very far short.

A WBD spokesperson said it had to let some trainees go because they had a very traditional and technical approach to disclosure which holds no place in a modern fast paced cash at all costs firm like ours

Nothing suspicious at all happening with the up / down votes on WBD articles here...

The up/down voting is hilarious. If you look at the last Post Office article, the voting is clearly rigged for the first five or six days post-publication, then it goes back to normal…almost as if the bot was programmed for a specific number of days or as though Project Vote’s instruction manual to the specially selected minions (for there surely will have been one issued by one of the numpties on the board) only covered five days before they were sent back to publishing articles on X (nee Twitter) that generate 134 whole views.

Bots, Post Office, cutting edge marketing, epic trainee retention rate, happy staff. Well done Paul. You’ve absolutely smashed it again.

The bot activity suggests WBD management realise how unpopular the firm has become so are paying a service to downvote comments they don’t like.

Employees of WBD should vote with their feet.

Sad but predictable to see all the negative comments and spam voting by WBD’s competitors.

Tragically, the only form of damage limitation WBD have at this stage is to manipulate the votes on the comments beneath yet another damning article.

I do wonder whether the firm will survive the fallout from the post office inquiry, as it is *so* damning.

Dilley said his only regret in his handling of the claim against sub-postmaster Lee Castleton was that they were unable to settle the claim/counter-claim before trial. So, you aggressively pursue an innocent man for money he doesn't owe, bankrupt him, earn yourself and the partners lots of money in the process, and when it transpires that in fact he was entirely innocent, your ONLY REGRET is that he didn't settle a claim which should never have been brought in the first place?! It beggars belief. That and the "well I always have IT issues which turn out to be my fault [laughs]" line were the highlights of his jaw-droppingly unrepentant evidence.

Yes 2219 agree. Wombles are all talk no substance. They assume the world will believe anything they say and get very upset if they don't. Reminds me of my 5 year old toddler with much more arrogance.

Training trainees is very expensive and a significant investment. So either something gone wrong with the trainee take on filters, the firm is in financial difficulty or the prospective NQ's have values not aligning with the firm that is right in the thick of the biggest legal scandal in a long time. My message to them is you will find a more supportive home elsewhere and probably be reluctant to put Wombles on your CV because mention of that name means only one thing nowadays, well 3 things Post Office Scandal.

Agree with Hello WBD bot. Wombles will never shake this off. Can't see why anyone would apply to be a trainee there anymore. Used to be a great place and excellent training but not annylonger. All gone badly wrong very badly wrong. leadership out of their depth. No compassion. No self awareness. No clue. They think it all about news management rather than addressing underlying problems. Time ticking on the Wombles. Look what else going on in market and stay well clear of this lot. Small Paul and Little Johnny yet again getting the big calls wrong.

Never heard of Post Office Scandal before ROF. But have been hooked to the proceedings on the Inquiry YouTube channel. It is gripping. I cannot believe how this happened and the Womble did not disclose the documents or correctly spot the many flaws in the post office evidence . If I was the Post Office I would sack the Womble. I feel so so sorry for the Postmasters and their families . It is outrageous and shame on the Post Office and shame on the Wombles for the pain and injustice you wrongly inflicted on the totally innocent. Shocking. As a prospective trainee I will now not be considering Womble . Shame as just build a new office in my hometown. I expect exam questions will be written about this and tv documentaries.

Is Edinburgh cheaper than Leeds and Southampton? That surprises me. Good bye.

Anon @ 05:55 on 23 September - is that you, Paul? Either you or one of your lapdogs gets up very early to check RoF and blame it all on competitors. We thought you didn’t care!

Hope the internal propaganda campaign is working out for you. 😉

Unfortunately, You’re not fooling anyone else.