Good times in Brizzle
Bristol firm Burges Salmon — which claims to offer a utopian combination of City quality work and chilled out West Country living — announced today that it is to keep on 24 out of 24 of its qualifying trainees.
The 100% retention figure is an improvement on the firm’s autumn 2014 results, which saw 91% of rookies go on to full-time positions.
And so confident is Burges Salmon of its health in the wake of these two impressive results that it has re-iterated a pledge to offer more training contracts.
Back in August, the firm told Legal Cheek that it was going to up TC numbers by 12.5% from 24 in 2013-14 to 27-29 in this recruitment round, adding that it “hopes” to raise that figure to 30 in the years ahead.
This morning the Bristolians were trotting out the same line to Lawyer2B, repeating their “hopes” to have “up to 30 trainees” starting at the firm in 2017.
Of the trainees who have just qualified at the firm, six each will go into dispute resolution and commercial, four into, respectively, real estate and corporate, while the environment and energy teams take two each, and pensions, engineering and construction one each.
The youngsters enter these practice areas following a six seat training contract, marking the firm out from most rivals, which tend to offer trainees experience in just four departments.
The downside to life in this delightful enclave off the M4?
The money reflects the moderate and sensible nature of the place: trainees start on £33,000 and NQs get £42,500. Very good money, of course, but lower than the amount awarded by most corporate firms in exchange for a year of a clever graduate’s 20s.
Which firms pay most? Check out the Legal Cheek Most list for all the answers.