More firms have announced their partner promotions. And the hot news is that Field Fisher Waterhouse is the best at promoting internal talent, as its trainees have the best chance, statistically, of making it to the letterhead.
The firm has topped RollOnFriday's Partnership Prospects table, with trainees enjoying a pretty reasonable 10% chance of making partner, just ahead of the nearest rival Herbert Smith. At the other end of the table, Denton Wilde Sapte and Macfarlanes should hang their heads in shame. Neither firm had a single new partner who'd trained with them. In fact Dentons didn't have any new partners in its UK offices at all.
*The % chance figure is calculated by dividing the number of new partners this year who were trainees at the relevant firm by the number of trainees that they take on per year. The figure will tend to understate the % chance as, generally speaking, trainee intakes were smaller when this year's crop of new partners were first hired. However it gives a rough and ready estimate of how successful a firm is at developing its own trainee talent.
However, while Macfarlanes scores badly for trainee development, it has done at least something for diversity - its only new partner is a woman. Both Linklaters and Field Fisher Waterhouse also showed their feminine side with, respectively, 37% and 33% of new UK partners being women.
Ashurst however was unable to shake off its deck-shoes and braces image - it failed to find a single woman it wanted to promote. When asked why this was the firm said it couldn't promote on "any sort of quota basis". Ahhh, because promoting women can only be done as part of a "quota".
Tip Off ROF
The firm has topped RollOnFriday's Partnership Prospects table, with trainees enjoying a pretty reasonable 10% chance of making partner, just ahead of the nearest rival Herbert Smith. At the other end of the table, Denton Wilde Sapte and Macfarlanes should hang their heads in shame. Neither firm had a single new partner who'd trained with them. In fact Dentons didn't have any new partners in its UK offices at all.
| Partnership Prospects | No. of partners made up in UK | No. who trained at the firm | No. of trainees taken on in last year | Trainees' chances of making partner* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Field Fisher Waterhouse | 9 | 2 | 20 | 10% |
| Herbert Smith | 11 | 8 | 86 | 9% |
| Ashurst | 6 | 4 | 56 | 7% |
| Eversheds | 8 | 5 | 68 | 7% |
| BLP | 7 | 2 | 41 | 5% |
| White & Case | 7 | 1 | 28 | 4% |
| Freshfields | 6 | 4 | 98 | 4% |
| Norton Rose | 4 | 1 | 48 | 2% |
| Linklaters | 8 | 3 | 114 | 2% |
| Lovells | 5 | 0 | 90 | 0% |
| Denton Wilde Sapte | 0 | 0 | 31 | 0% |
| SJ Berwin | 5 | 0 | 37 | 0% |
| Macfarlanes | 1 | 0 | 29 | 0% |
| Bird & Bird | 1 | 0 | 16 | 0% |
However, while Macfarlanes scores badly for trainee development, it has done at least something for diversity - its only new partner is a woman. Both Linklaters and Field Fisher Waterhouse also showed their feminine side with, respectively, 37% and 33% of new UK partners being women.
Ashurst however was unable to shake off its deck-shoes and braces image - it failed to find a single woman it wanted to promote. When asked why this was the firm said it couldn't promote on "any sort of quota basis". Ahhh, because promoting women can only be done as part of a "quota".
| UK Female Partners | No. of partners made up in UK | No. of female partners made up in UK | Proportion of new UK partners female |
|---|---|---|---|
| Macfarlanes |
1 | 1 | 100% |
| Linklaters |
8 | 3 | 37% |
| Field Fisher Waterhouse | 9 | 3 | 33% |
| Freshfields | 6 | 2 | 33% |
| BLP | 7 | 2 | 29% |
| Herbert Smith | 11 | 3 | 27% |
| Norton Rose | 4 | 1 | 25% |
| White & Case | 7 | 1 | 14% |
| Eversheds | 8 | 1 | 13% |
| Ashurst | 9 | 0 | 0% |
| Lovells | 5 | 0 | 0% |
| SJ Berwin | 5 | 0 | 0% |
| Bird & Bird | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Denton Wilde Sapte | 0 | 0 | 0% |