Exclusive: Watson Farley & Williams to review process and will resume once able to run assessment centres effectively
Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) has paused recruitment for direct training contract applicants as it announced a 94% autumn retention result.
In an email update sent to TC applicants on Friday and seen by this website, WFW announced that it has paused recruitment for non-vacation scheme applicants for training contracts pending a review of its processes in light of current restrictions impacting the London office and its ability to run assessment centres effectively.
Prospective 2022 TC candidates will be updated later in the year, a spokesperson from the firm confirmed.
They added that recruitment via vacation schemes, from which it recruits the majority of its trainees, was completed earlier this year and prior to the lockdown meaning it was able to proceed with running the schemes virtually. The firm offers three vacation schemes of two-week periods in the spring and summer each year.
This comes as the firm announced a solid autumn 2020 retention score of 94%.
WFW will keep 17 out of 18 of its final-seat trainees upon qualification in September, all of whom are on permanent contracts.
Our Firms Most List shows newly-qualified (NQ) associates at WFW can expect to earn £73,700 — an uplift of 60% on year two pay.
Six NQs will join the City firm’s assets and structured finance team; two are corporate-bound; while debt capital markets; dispute resolution; employment; projects and real estate will gain one rookie each. The final four NQs will join the firm’s overseas offices in Athens, Bangkok, Hanoi and Singapore.
In the last autumn round the shipping specialist retained 71% of its qualifying trainees.
