Dentons' NQ retention rate plunges to 14 per cent
Denton Wilde Sapte is shedding 86 per cent of its spring 2010 qualifiers giving it the lowest newly qualified (NQ) retention rate in the UK 200 so far.
Jeremy Cape
The top 20 law firm has announced that it has only managed to offer one of its NQs a job in the real estate department out of a cohort of 7, giving it a disappointing result of just 14 per cent. The result is much lower than the 79 per cent Dentons managed in Spring 2009.
Denton’s graduate recruitment partner Jeremy Cape said: “Our focus is still very much on the productivity of our fee earners and improving the profitability of the firm in a market that remains challenging. We examined whether the departments were sufficiently busy to justify a business case for recruiting extra NQs in those departments.”
Elsewhere, Clifford Chance is losing 30 per cent of its spring 2010 qualifiers, giving it one of the lowest NQ retention rates in the magic circle. The other magic circle firm with a 70 per cent retention rate is Linklaters.
Clifford Chance is retaining just 44 of the 63 trainee solicitors due to qualify in March 2010 giving it a retention rate of 70 per cent - much lower than the 84 per cent it achieved in March 2009.
Meanwhile, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has reported an 80 per cent retention rate after it only managed to retain 40 NQs out of a cohort of 50. Last year it managed a rate of 86 per cent.
Freshfield’s graduate recruitment partner Simon Johnson said: ”We worked very hard to retain as many people as we could and have looked for as many opportunities within the firm as possible.”
At Lovells, meanwhile, 32 out of the 38 spring 2010 qualifiers applied for an NQ position. However, only 26 are staying with the firm thereby giving it a retention rate of 68 per cent.
Readers' comments (6)
Anonymous | 10-Feb-2010 4:56 pm
The place is a sinking ship and morale is at rock bottom. I personally feel they have done me a big favour by telling me they can't offer me a role. A year in Madrid to learn Spanish is a far better idea.
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Anonymous | 10-Feb-2010 5:03 pm
Ouch!
Come on kids, train at Dentons! Where you have a less than one-in-seven chance of a job!
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Anonymous | 11-Feb-2010 12:55 pm
Unless things have changed in recent years, which seems unlikely given that changing a corporate culture is hard even when there is the will to do so. The first poster @ 4.56 is on the money, strange as it may seem in these troubled times, they have escaped before they to are sucked in. There are good reasons shy DWS has not made it to the top flight in the last 20 years
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Anonymous | 12-Feb-2010 4:05 pm
Absolutely agree with the first comment. Morale is rock bottom across the firm from trainee up to partner level. The firm has lost the majority of its decent lawyers and will struggle going forwards. The talent has gone. There are plenty of people waiting to jump ship as soon as the market picks up. Its a firm which will continue to slide.
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Anonymous | 15-Feb-2010 10:52 am
Morale is not high - there's no feeling of the energy Dentons had in the past. Sad really.
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Anonymous | 20-Apr-2010 2:05 pm
You think being a lawyer is hard at DWS - try being a member of the support departments. Rounds of redundancies ever few months, no salery reviews for over 2 years - no bonus for over 2 either. Much like lawyers, once the job market improves (which it will - it always does) then talented support staff will be leaving the ship as soon as possible.
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