Maclay Murray & Spens has denied rumours that it is keeping on just 13 of its 36 September qualifiers - but has refused to give any indication of the right figure.

RollOnFriday has been told that one of the 13 jobs is only for six months, and another for nine - so that would mean just 30% of trainees offered a permanent position. That would be a woeful figure for the Scots firm, and particularly surprising given the recent upturn in the economy and increase in deal flow. Still, at least the trainees saw it coming. One of them told RollOnFriday that he was told by a partner before the last Christmas party that they might as well behave as badly as they wanted because none of them would be kept on.

    An unemployed Scotsman yesterday 

Despite such grim rumours, the firm is still taking on more than 30 new trainees this September. One insider said that MMS "uses and spits out trainees rather than employing extra support staff and paralegals - I think this should be exposed and other potential trainees warned".

A spokesman for the firm said that the figures were incorrect, but declined to give any more accurate figure. In a very carefully worded statement he said that "the number of trainees to be offered NQ roles has not yet been finalised and any suggestion of a specific number is, therefore, inaccurate. As per today, we can confirm the figures provided by RollOnFriday are not correct. We do not issue any information on trainee retention until these numbers are finalised and our employees informed.

Well, everyone is waiting to hear.
 
Tip Off ROF