Alliance Boots looks into in-house trainee scheme

As part of an overhaul of the in-house legal team, Alliance Boots will consider taking on trainees for the first time.

The high-street chains head of legal Marco Pagni told Lawyer2B.com that he was thinking about bringing in trainees as a means of bolstering his UK legal team, which currently has 15 lawyers. He said it would be a good way to attract and retain talent.

The plans are at a very early stage and are part of Pagnis wider moves to increase lawyer headcount at the company and choose five firms as his regular panel advisers.

If the trainee plans are successful, Alliance Boots would join a roster of top UK companies that either offer or are planning to offer traineeships for the most junior members of their in-house teams. They include Barclays Capital, BAE Systems, Reuters and Vodafone (see Lawyer 2B, December 2006).

Alliance Boots has just been taken private in an 11.1bn management buyout backed by blue-chip US private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). It is the first time that a FTSE 100 company has fallen prey to private equity. Slaughter and May advised Alliance Boots, while Clifford Chance advised KKR.