Allen & Overy, the last Magic Circle firm to announce its retention rate for September qualifiers, has come bottom of the pack.
54 trainees are qualifying, but three chose not to apply for a position. A respectable 45 of the remaining 51 were offered places, so the firm must be fairly confident of plenty of work for its new crop. But only 39 accepted, giving A&O a score of just 72%: down on 79% last year. As a spokesman said, "a number of this year’s intake decided not to accept offers, so our retention rate is lower than we expected".
It's not clear why so many of the trainees would prefer to throw themselves on the mercy of a less-than-buoyant market than accept a guaranteed £61.5k p.a. and a load of good work. One insider says that they were offered unfanciable positions in the likes of Moscow, and some have already accepted offers at other Magic Circle firms. A spokesman said that it "genuinely appears to be for a variety of reasons". But it's a bit of a kick in the nuts for a firm which has had a reputation as one of the best places at which to train in the City.
A&O also announced that as of 2015 it would be cutting its annual grad rec intake from 90 to 85. Not a huge drop, but it comes on the back of a steady decline. At the height of the boom the firm took on 120 trainees a year. It currently takes 105, and next year this will fall to 90. A fall to 85 means an overall 30% drop in grad rec. A spokesman said that "managing our intake numbers means that we aren’t just offering our trainees excellent training and experience, but also a strong prospect of a long-term career with the firm after qualification".
A&O is not alone in reducing trainee numbers. Clifford Chance has confirmed that its trainee intake will fall from 120 to 100 in 2015. Expect to see an unholy mess as law schools seek to fill more and more places while grad rec continues to slide...
Tip Off ROF
54 trainees are qualifying, but three chose not to apply for a position. A respectable 45 of the remaining 51 were offered places, so the firm must be fairly confident of plenty of work for its new crop. But only 39 accepted, giving A&O a score of just 72%: down on 79% last year. As a spokesman said, "a number of this year’s intake decided not to accept offers, so our retention rate is lower than we expected".
| Firm |
Total trainees |
Trainees retained |
Retention score Sept 2013 |
| Slaughter and May |
51 | 46 | 90% |
| Linklaters | 54 | 47 | 87% |
| Freshfields | 48 | 39 | 83% |
| Clifford Chance |
60 | 51 | 80% |
| Allen & Overy |
54 | 39 | 72% |
It's not clear why so many of the trainees would prefer to throw themselves on the mercy of a less-than-buoyant market than accept a guaranteed £61.5k p.a. and a load of good work. One insider says that they were offered unfanciable positions in the likes of Moscow, and some have already accepted offers at other Magic Circle firms. A spokesman said that it "genuinely appears to be for a variety of reasons". But it's a bit of a kick in the nuts for a firm which has had a reputation as one of the best places at which to train in the City.
 |
A kick in the nuts yesterday |
A&O also announced that as of 2015 it would be cutting its annual grad rec intake from 90 to 85. Not a huge drop, but it comes on the back of a steady decline. At the height of the boom the firm took on 120 trainees a year. It currently takes 105, and next year this will fall to 90. A fall to 85 means an overall 30% drop in grad rec. A spokesman said that "managing our intake numbers means that we aren’t just offering our trainees excellent training and experience, but also a strong prospect of a long-term career with the firm after qualification".
A&O is not alone in reducing trainee numbers. Clifford Chance has confirmed that its trainee intake will fall from 120 to 100 in 2015. Expect to see an unholy mess as law schools seek to fill more and more places while grad rec continues to slide...
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1. The usual insane over subscriptions for litigation and competition in a firm which specialises in neither (Why do people train there if that is what they want to do?); and
2. The fact that A&O is now getting a reputation for poor partner management. Partners take no ineterst in trainees and treat them generally as secondary even to PAs. Both trainees and junior associates are generally excluded from transaction social events, team calls and more challenging work and yet are expected to work just as long hours. How do they expect to retain anyone with a culture like that?
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Most of the partners are pretty engaged and interested in trainees, I'm included in team meetings and social events, and when we finish a big transaction trainees are normally included in the post-deal lunch or booze-up just the same as anyone else on the team. I'm not saying the firm is perfect - nowhere is - but I think some of the comments above should be treated with a pinch of salt, and possibly those writing them have a bit of an axe to grind...?
Incidentally, A&O has told its next set of qualifiers that nobody was offered a September job in a place they didn't apply for. In other words, the firm is saying that the comment about the six job-rejecters being offered "unfanciable positions in the likes of Moscow" (implying that they had not actively pursued a job in Moscow) isn't true. I don't know if A&O has given an official response to the point (or whether RoF has asked directly about it) but I would definitely be interested to hear it confirmed either way.
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