More trainees than ever are recruited through vacation schemes, exclusive research by Lawyer 2B has revealed.
The proportion of trainee intakes made up of students who vac schemed with the same firm has risen steadily from 32 per cent in 2013, to 35 per cent in 2014 and 40 per cent for those due to begin in 2015.
In total, 60 firms provided data. Lawyer 2B excluded any firms which did not provide data for all three years, along with those that take fewer than ten trainees annually to avoid skewing the data sets.
Of those firms which recruited fewer than ten trainees a year, six took 100 per cent of their 2015 intake from vacations schemes: Gibson Dunn, O’Melveny & Myers, Skadden, Sullivan & Cromwell, Taylor Walton and Vinson & Elkins.
Of the firms with larger intakes, those which took the largest proportion of their 2013, 2014 and 2015 trainee intakes from their vacation schemes were Nabarro (98 per cent overall), King & Wood Mallesons (80 per cent), Bevan Brittan (78 per cent), Mills & Reeve (74 per cent) and TLT (73 per cent).
Nabarro has a longstanding policy of trying to take 100 per cent of its trainee intake from its vacation scheme, a policy also adopted by Mishcon de Reya this October. Mishcon took 45 per cent of its 2014 intake from its vacation scheme pool but did not provide data for previous years.
At the other end of the scale, Withers and Shoosmiths took one-third of their trainees from their vacation schemes over the last three years while Hogan Lovells took 32 per cent. However, over half of the latter’s 2015 trainee intake is comprised of former vac schemers, up from 24 per cent in 2014. The firm now runs three vacaction placements per year, as opposed to just a summer scheme three years ago.
Slaughter and May has recruited 29 per cent of its trainees from its vacation scheme over the last three years, while Weightmans had the lowest proportion of any firm that provided information, taking just 17 per cent of its trainee intake from its scheme.
Further information on the number of trainees recruited from vac schemes, including data on firms with smaller intakes, can be found in Lawyer 2B’s A-Z of firms.
Percentage recruited from vacation scheme in… | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | Three-year average |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ashurst | 30 | 48 | 48 | 42.0 |
Baker & McKenzie | 53 | 53 | 30 | 45.3 |
Berwin Leighton Paisner | 43 | 46 | 79 | 56.0 |
Bevan Brittan | 63 | 100 | 71 | 78.0 |
Bird & Bird | 71 | 68 | 75 | 71.3 |
Burges Salmon | 60 | 60 | 60 | 60.0 |
Clyde & Co | 45 | 50 | 65 | 53.3 |
DLA Piper | 59 | 62 | 72 | 64.3 |
Farrer & Co | 60 | 20 | 70 | 50.0 |
Hill Dickinson | 63 | 50 | 45 | 52.7 |
Hogan Lovells | 21 | 24 | 53 | 32.7 |
Holman Fenwick Willan | 42 | 33 | 57 | 44.0 |
Irwin Mitchell | 69 | 68 | 35 | 57.3 |
King & Wood Mallesons | 82 | 84 | 78 | 81.3 |
Kirkland & Ellis | 60 | 60 | 80 | 66.7 |
Linklaters | 44 | 66 | 52 | 54.0 |
Mayer Brown | 75 | 70 | 65 | 70.0 |
Mills & Reeve | 75 | 60 | 88 | 74.3 |
Nabarro | 100 | 96 | 100 | 98.7 |
Pinsent Masons | 70 | 70 | 70 | 70.0 |
RPC | 47 | 48 | 35 | 43.3 |
Shearman & Sterling | 62 | 50 | 36 | 49.3 |
Shoosmiths | 40 | 25 | 35 | 33.3 |
Sidley Austin | 30 | 45 | 45 | 40.0 |
Slaughter and May | 23 | 42 | 22 | 29.0 |
Taylor Wessing | 50 | 80 | 71 | 67.0 |
TLT | 60 | 80 | 80 | 73.3 |
Travers Smith | 47 | 30 | 41 | 39.3 |
Trowers & Hamlins | 56 | 56 | 63 | 58.3 |
Walker Morris | 65 | 70 | 45 | 60.0 |
Ward Hadaway | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50.0 |
Watson Farley & Williams | 53 | 64 | 68 | 61.7 |
Weightmans | 18 | 15 | 18 | 17.0 |
Weil Gotshal & Manges | 45 | 65 | 67 | 59.0 |
White & Case | 62 | 71 | 73 | 68.7 |
Withers | 30 | 40 | 30 | 33.3 |
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It’s really not good for S&M that so few of their vac schemers take the TC offer after the vac scheme it’s less than half the Linklaters figure. Although that was certainly the case in my vac scheme class a few years ago.
@Jo Pentice S&M have a different take on vacation schemes to the likes of Links, Freshfields, etc.
The S&M VS is more of a glorified work experience than a vacation scheme and I am pretty sure that they do not offer an interview for the TC. I have no idea why Slaughters do it like that though.
@Jo Pentice You’re discounting the possibility that Slaughters offer fewer TCs to their vac schemers than the other MC firms… Having a Slaughters vac scheme under your belt is less of an advantage in your TC application to them than is the case with other firms.