CPD for Solicitors
Increasing numbers of trainees retained
Norton Rose, Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), SJ Berwin and Stephenson Harwood have all confirmed trainee retention rates for their first intake of 2012.
Norton Rose has announced the details of its January 2012 qualifying round, with 18 newly-qualified lawyers (NQs) offered a position at the firm, equating to a 78% retention rate. Meanwhile, BLP has awarded jobs to 88% of its January NQs, retaining 15 out of a pool of 1.
Elsewhere, SJ Berwin has taken on 100% of its eight March 2012 NQs, while Stephenson Harwood has retained five (83%) of its six March qualifiers. SJ Berwin kept on 67% of the equivalent intake last year.
The healthy retention rates across the firms confirm a trend recently identified in new research by the Chambers Student Guide, which showed that last year 81% of 2,253 newly-qualified lawyers across 123 firms were kept on.
This figure is up 4% on 2010, when 76% of 2,626 NQ lawyers were retained, after 74% of a comparable group were kept on in 2009.