Olswang has cut graduate recruitment by a massive 50% for the foreseeable future, blaming changing client demands for the sweeping reduction.

In 2014 and 2015 - as first reported in Lawyer2B - only 12 brand new Olswangers will march through the doors, compared to 24 in any normal year. Well apart from next year that is when no-one will be starting as the firm has cancelled its entire 2013 training contract round (except eight trainees who were deferred from 2012).

In a repeat of the statement it gave earlier this year, a spokeswoman for Olswang said that the recruitment cut was due to a "change in client demands", adding that the firm wanted to "ensure that [its] trainees get consistently excellent experience and on-the-job training during their training contracts".

Olswang's 2014 trainee intake celebrate their training contracts

But what to do if there's a sudden surge in demand for due diligence, document review and coffee procurement? Well, Olswang was recently revealed to be the first firm jumping on the Acculaw bandwagon. So the firm won't need to go through that whole pesky recruitment exercise to find trainees when it needs them.

More generally, it remains a grim time to be looking for a training contract with a backlog of unemployed LPC graduates fighting for a dwindling selection of jobs. In June, Allen & Overy chopped 25% from its annual intake, from a pre-downturn high of 120 to a 2014 low of just 90.

Interestingly, A&O still remains statistically one of the easiest places in the City to get a training contract: the firm gets about 2,500 applications for its places, giving applicants a one in 28 chance of landing a TC. By comparison, hipsters wanting a bit of sexy media law in Oslwang's 2014 intake face odds of one in 167 (2,000 applications for 12 places). Which is at least better than the 0% chance for 2013.