Latest cohort includes seven apprentices
Eversheds Sutherland has recorded a 2022 trainee retention score of 82%.
The international law firm revealed 34 out of 43 trainees had accepted newly qualified (NQ) roles with a further eight qualifying six months early with ‘time to count’ (where trainees have gained equivalent legal experience prior to commencing their training contract).
The new recruits will be based across the firm’s UK offices in the company commercial, litigation and dispute management, employment, labour and pensions, and real estate practice groups.
The latest qualifying cohort includes the firm’s first tranche of apprentices, six of whom are staying on as lawyers and one as a legal technologist.
Separately, Eversheds’ Hong Kong office retained four out of its six NQs, and the firm’s Middle East team kept its two trainees.
The firm’s chief people officer Lorraine Kilborn commented:
“Congratulations to our newly qualified trainees in the UK, Hong Kong and the Middle East and to our first cohort of legal apprentices in the UK who also join our legal and business teams upon qualification. Attracting, retaining and developing diverse junior talent, from a range of socio-economic backgrounds, will enable our firm to grow and we are pleased that so many young lawyers will now start their careers at the firm.”
She continued: “In November last year, we launched a third option to qualification as a solicitor with one of the industry’s first SQE routes to qualification and we currently have 10 former paralegals now training via this scheme. We wish all our trainee lawyers and recently qualified lawyers the best of luck in their careers.”