10 current and future trainee roles at risk
An urgent appeal has been launched to help home 10 current and future trainees after a US headquartered law firm announced it is shuttering its London office.
A letter from Colin Passmore, the chair of the City of London Law Society (CLLS), urges senior partners across the City to “engage in an urgent conversation” to provide assistance.
“The London office managing partner of a US-headquartered law firm has late last week contacted CLLS in relation to the imminent closure of that office,” the letter reads. “It has only very recently become clear that they [the current and future trainees] will not be accommodated as part of any employee transfer.”
The letter, shared on LinkedIn this morning, states that 10 current and future trainees are at risk. This includes four final-seat trainees due to qualify in the coming weeks, two trainees in their second and third seats, two rookies scheduled to begin training in September, and two more waiting to start their SQE preparation.
The firm in question is not named in the letter.
Passmore’s letter continues: “Typically, when firms run into difficulties such as this, law firms rally round to rehome the more junior lawyers and I very much hope that this will be the case again. You will recall that Ince & Co found itself in a similar situation and approached CLLS almost exactly a year ago, several CLLS member law firms stepped in, as did other legal organisation employers, as a result of which many of their junior lawyers were placed into other roles.”
“Those lawyers are I understand extremely grateful for our combined efforts,” Passmore added.
