Womble Bond Dickinson and Watson Farley & Williams also record solid autumn results
Pinsent Masons has recorded an autumn 2021 trainee retention result of 88%.
Of the 72 trainees due to qualify this September, 62 have signed permanent deals and will be taking up newly qualified (NQ) associate roles within the firm. A further rookie has secured a role within the firm’s public policy team.
Twenty NQs join the finance and projects group, 14 qualify into an array of transactional teams (corporate, commercial, corporate tax, competition, employment), and 22 start life as a lawyer in contentious practice areas (litigation, construction advisory disputes, intellectual property, TMT and contentious tax). The remaining seven NQs join the firm’s property department.
In terms of offices, 24 soon-to-be associates qualify into London, Manchester gains eight, Birmingham receives seven, while Glasgow and Leeds take six each. A further five join the outfit’s Edinburgh office, four are bound for Aberdeen and three join Belfast.
The Legal Cheek Firms Most List shows Pinsent’s new recruits in London start on salary of £75,000 while their counterparts in the regions earn £45,000. Scottish and Northern Irish NQs start on £43,500 and £30,000 respectively.
Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) has also confirmed 16 of its 18 NQs are staying put. With one retained on a fixed-term contact, this hands the outfit a score of 89% or 83%, depending on your reading of the numbers. Seventeen applied for NQ roles.
Five join asset and structured finance, four qualify into projects and three into disputes. Two NQs join corporate while real estate and employment gain one each. Fourteen will be based in London, one in Singapore and one in Dubai.
Finally, national outfit Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) has recorded an autumn score of 88%, with 23 of its 26 NQs securing permanent roles.
Corporate and commercial takes nine, six join real estate and a further six qualify into dispute resolution. The final two rookies qualify into private wealth. Newcastle and Bristol take five NQs each, London, Southampton and London take four apiece, and the firm’s Plymouth office gains one.
This week WBD also went public with its new long-term remote-working policy, telling lawyers and staff they’re free to decide where they work — at home full-time, in the office full-time, or a mixture of the two. Set to be introduced in September, the fresh approach comes “without any mandatory requirements being set across the business other than for those in learning roles”.
Find out how other law firms performed in the autumn 2021 retention round here.
