Ince & Co posts lowest autumn retention figure so far – keeping just 60% of its new lawyers

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By Thomas Connelly on

City firm Ince & Co drop to bottom of retention table, with six NQs heading for the exit

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Shipping specialists Ince & Co have posted a dismal autumn retention figure of just 60%.

The firm — which offers a modest newly qualified (NQ) salary by City standards of £58,000 — has today revealed six out of its cohort of 15 young lawyers are heading for the exit.

Ince & Co made twelve offers in total with three turning the St Katharine Docks-based firm down. A further two trainees had already lined up NQ positions at other firms before formal offers were made.

This places the firm at the foot of the autumn 2015 retention table behind property specialist Nabarro, which kept 77% of its qualifying trainees last month.

Despite today’s disappointing news, Ince & Co’s announcement come amid what has been a generally positive retention season across the City.

Slaughter and May, Taylor Wessing and Mills & Reeve have all revealed retention figures in the high eighties over the past couple of months.

But it’s the US firms based in the capital that are ruling the retention roost. Jones Day, White & Case, Shearman & Sterling, Sullivan & Cromwell and Weil Gotshal & Manges have all revealed 100% retention figures this autumn.