Trainee retention figures looking good
03 February 2012
Trainee retention figures continue to spill out of firms and the positive trend seems to be continuing, with some pretty strong results.

Travers Smith and Wragges have joined SJ Berwin at the top of the table, all three posting perfect retention scores of 100%. That's pretty impressive stuff in these shaky times. A spokeswoman for Wragges was justifiably excited, saying "all our March qualifiers are staying with the firm, which is good for them and sends a positive message about training at Wragge & Co". Further down the table, Baker & McKenzie managed a not-too-shabby 80% retention rate and just pipped Ashurst, which will be holding onto 21 of its 27 trainees (78%).

But it's not all high fives and chest bumps. Kicking around right at the bottom of the table are two firms very much bucking this positive trend: Reed Smith, which only managed to retain nine of its 16 trainees, and current last-placed Macfarlanes, with only two out of the five trainees staying on as NQs. It's a sharp fall from grace for the blue-blooded firm which posted an impressive 92% score last year.

The soundtrack for 60% of Macfarlanes' trainees

If your firm isn't in the table, drop us a line (anonymously of course) to let us know your how qualification is going at your shop. And pop over to the blogs for a comparison of retention scores over the last year (plus a bit of a moan about firms' attempts to fudge their figures).

Firm	Total trainees	Trainees retained	% Retention score
SJ Berwin	8	8	100
Travers Smith	4	4	100
Wragge & Co	6	6	100
Allen & Overy	57	51	89
BLP	17	15	88
Herbert Smith	40	35	88
Freshfields	48	41	85
Stephenson Harwood	6	5	83
Baker & McKenzie	20	16	80
Ashurst	27	21	78
Norton Rose	23	18	78
Clifford Chance	51	39	76
Reed Smith	16	9	56
Macfarlanes	5	2	40