Linklaters posts 78% retention rate in cohort featuring relocated Moscow trainees

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By Legal Cheek on

7

46 out of 59


Magic Circle law firm Linklaters has confirmed its Autumn retention rate, with 46 out of 59 final-seat trainees — or 78% — securing associate roles.

Eleven of the trainees from the qualifying cohort relocated after the firm decided to shutter its Moscow office in 2022, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Legal Cheek Firms Most List shows the newly qualified associates, all of whom are on permeant deals, will start on recently improved salary of £150,000.

Links is one of the largest training contract providers in the City, with an annual trainee intake of around 100, split across two intakes each year.

Chris Stevenson, trainee development partner at Linklaters, commented:

“Congratulations to our new qualifying trainees on this milestone and who are advancing their careers with us at Linklaters! This is an exceptionally talented group of junior lawyers who have already demonstrated dedication, resilience and remarkable skill. They have limitless opportunities to grow and excel across our global platform, supported by industry-leading training and a culture that nurtures high-performance and teamwork. We are all looking forward to their continued success.”

The 2024 Legal Cheek Firms Most List

Links is the final Magic Circle firm to announce its autumn retention results, following Slaughter and May and Freshfields last week with scores of 84% (36 out of 43) and 86% (37 out of 43), respectively. Meanwhile, Clifford Chance achieved a 75% retention rate with 42 out of 56 trainees staying on, while A&O Shearman retained 37 out of 56 trainees, or 66%.

7 Comments

Mel

Sidley Austin has a 62.5% retention rate this year. 87.5% were offered places. All departing trainees going to US firms.

Anon

Someone here mentioned DLA Piper had a bad retention this year – can anyone elaborate?

Joe

We can’t elaborate because LC keeps deleting all the comments lol

Regional Insider

It’s not so much the retention figures as the way graduate recruitment dealt with the NQ process.

It was utterly disorganised.

They arranged a teams meeting to give trainees information about the NQ process and couldn’t work out how to put everyone in breakout rooms according to the practice group they wanted to qualify into. Instead they made every trainee unmute themselves on the call and announce to everyone where they wanted to qualify so they could be redirected to a breakout room.

Another FBD Win

First to raise pay, highest retention rate. FBD are winning!

Future Links Trainee

Are the unretained trainees departing for the typical reasons (i.e, moving to US firms, leaving law, not getting their non transactional offer) or is this a wider issue with trainees not getting NQ offers for the typical transactional practices?

Anon

The market having forced a large increase to Associate salary is going to have an impact on departments’ budgets for headcount across the MC. They recruit fewer; we work harder – it’s not a complex business model.

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