London office of US firm goes all shy
Anglo-German law firm Taylor Wessing has posted a trainee retention rate of 77%, announcing that it will give full-time solicitor jobs to 17 out of 22 trainees who are due to qualify this autumn.
The result represents a ten percentage point drop on the firm’s retention figure for this time last year, when it kept 87% of trainees. But it still falls well within the range of respectability for a mid-tier player that is subject to recruitment raids for new qualifiers by magic circle and US firms.
The same can’t be said of the 68% trainee retention rate that the London office of Jones Day is reported to have announced internally.
Mystery shrouds the future of the US firm’s trainees due to qualify in the UK capital as Jones Day has seemingly severed communications with the legal press.
The firm — which takes on 20 trainees a year — is not responding to Legal Cheek‘s calls to verify a report in the blogosphere that it was “trying to keep a lid on its paltry 60-something-% retention rate.” We understand that the precise figure is 68%.
Returning to Taylor Wessing, the firm tells us that its qualifying trainees will be spread across various teams including disputes, banking & finance, corporate, employment, tech, intellectual property & media and competition.
Tim Worden, one of the firm’s graduate recruitment partners, made no mention of the departing five trainees as he opted to focus on the positive, commenting:
Taylor Wessing is committed to developing high quality lawyers who will become valuable business advisors to our clients in some of the world’s most exciting and cutting-edge sectors. Each trainee has benefited from excellent legal and commercial training, as well as regular support and feedback during their training contracts with the firm, and we are delighted to be retaining them.
