79% of rookies stay with firm
The London office of international law firm Ashurst has announced its latest trainee retention rate — and it’s a solid, if not spectacular, 79%.
The firm, which is a member of the grouping of leading outfits sometimes dubbed the ‘silver circle’ by the legal press, offered newly qualified associate jobs to 17 out of 19 of its qualifying trainees. 15 accepted.
Those individuals will see their salaries jump from £45,000 to £65,000 at a firm where annual target hours stand at 1,600. Check out the Legal Cheek Most List for a full comparison with other top 60 firms.
11 of the rookies will join Ashurst’s corporate team; the other four join disputes.
The firm’s most recent retention rate — recorded in autumn — was 86%. Over the last few years it has hovvered around this mark, sometimes bobbing up into the 90s and other times dropping into the 70s.
This spring’s result places Ashurst below rivals like Norton Rose Fulbright and Herbert Smith Freehills, which kept, respectively, 96% and 94% of their latest intake of trainees. But the firm has done much better than Simmons & Simmons, which languishes at the foot of this year’s retention table with a figure of just 54%.