Allen & Overy has increased its salary for trainee solicitors.

First-year trainees will now be paid £46,500, up from from £45,000. Second-year trainees, meanwhile, get a £2,500 pay boost from £50,000 to £52,500.

At the same time the magic circle firm has announced that it will keep on 39 of its 44 qualifying trainees, after offering jobs to 40 of the 43 who applied, giving A&O a retention rate of 89 per cent for the autumn.

Graduate recruitment partner James Partridge said: “This is a great retention rate and reflects the quality of junior lawyers we have coming through the ranks and our commitment to training and retaining the very best legal talent.  I’d like to congratulate all of our new qualifiers and look forward to watching their careers progress.”

Autumn 2018 retention so far Trainees retained Trainees left Total number of qualifiers Percentage retained
Macfarlanes 25 0 25 100.0
Irwin Mitchell 45 2 47 95.7
Freshfields 38 3 41 92.7
Slaughter and May 37 3 40 92.5
Linklaters 49 5 54 90.7
Allen & Overy 39 5 44 88.6
Clifford Chance 41 6 47 87.2
Trowers & Hamlins 10 2 12 83.3
Mayer Brown 9 2 11 81.8
Shearman & Sterling 13 3 16 81.3
Travers Smith 17 4 21 81.0
Pinsent Masons 57 15 72 79.2
RPC 5 7 12 41.7