As international outfit Covington & Burling posts 83% score
The London office of Simmons & Simmons has confirmed a 2017 autumn retention figure of 78%.
Simmons, which dishes out roughly 35 training contacts annually, revealed that of its 27 newly qualified (NQ) lawyers, 21 will stick around post-qualification. Twenty-six applied for associate positions, with 22 receiving offers.
The firm’s new recruits will earn a recently improved salary of £71,000, putting them on a pay par with their peers at US headquartered outfit K&L Gates. Simmons first year trainees earn £42,000, rising to £47,000 in year two.
Today’s result is not far off Simmons’s previous retention score, which was 80% (12 out of 15). However it’s a big improvement on the season before (autumn 2016) when just 50% of lawyer rookies stayed on (12 out of 24).
Simmons — which has a profit per equity partner (PEP) of £585,000 — scored As for training and peer support in Legal Cheek’s 2016 Trainee and Junior Lawyer Survey. It also racked up Bs for quality of work, partner approachability, office, canteen, social life and secondment opportunities abroad.
Elsewhere, Covington & Burling has posted an 83% autumn retention result.
Keeping hold of five of its six NQs, the outfit confirmed three would qualify into corporate, while one will join life sciences. The remaining newbie will start life as an associate in project finance. According to Covington’s website, it offers around seven training contracts each year and pays its NQs a salary of £95,000.
Trainee autumn retention 2017
| Firm | Score | Breakdown |
| Burges Salmon | 100% | 28/28 |
| Watson Farley & Williams | 100% | 15/15 |
| Fieldfisher | 100% | 13/13 |
| Blake Morgan | 100% | 9/9 |
| Forsters | 100% | 8/8 |
| Sullivan & Cromwell | 100% | 4/4 |
| Latham & Watkins | 95% | 21/22 |
| Ashurst | 95% | 19/20 |
| Macfarlanes | 92% | 23/25 (two on FTC*) |
| Slaughter and May | 91% | 29/32 |
| Travers Smith | 90% | 18/20 |
| Ince & Co | 90% | 9/10 |
| Stephenson Harwood | 90% | 9/10 |
| Blake Morgan | 89% | 8/9 |
| Reed Smith | 86% | 12/14 |
| Allen & Overy | 85% | 40/47 |
| Linklaters | 84% | 47/56 |
| Gowling WLG | 84% | 21/25 |
| Bird & Bird | 83% | 15/18 |
| White & Case | 83% | 15/18 |
| Covington & Burling | 83% | 5/6 |
| Osborne Clarke | 82% | 14/17 |
| RPC | 82% | 14/17 |
| Clifford Chance | 81% | 42/52 |
| Bond Dickinson | 81% | 22/27 |
| Eversheds Sutherland | 80% | 44/55 |
| Herbert Smith Freehills | 80% | 28/35 |
| Hogan Lovells | 80% | 24/30 |
| Mills & Reeve | 79% | 15/19 (one on FTC) |
| Simmons & Simmons | 78% | 21/27 |
| Shearman & Sterling | 75% | 12/16 |
| Pinsent Masons | 74% | 67/91 |
| Mayer Brown | 73% | 8/11 |
| Withers | 73% | 8/11 |
| Trowers & Hamlins | 70% | 7/10 |
| Browne Jacobson | 67% | 6/9 |
| Freshfields | 66% | 27/41 |
| Dentons | 64% | 18/28 |
| Mishcon de Reya | 64% | 9/14 |
| Taylor Wessing | 62% | 16/26 |
| Kirkland & Ellis | 56% | 5/9 |
| Weil Gotshal | 50% | 5/10 |
| Stewarts Law | 25% | 1/4 |
*Fixed term contract
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