Baker McKenzie keeps 13 of its 16 spring qualifiers

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By Thomas Connelly on

International outfit’s London office racks up 81% retention score

Baker McKenzie has kept hold of 13 of its 16 newly-qualified (NQ) lawyers.

The international outfit, which has 76 offices across 49 different countries, has revealed it made 13 offers, with all accepting. This equates to a solid spring 2017 score of 81%.

Having recently undergone a rebrand and dropped its ampersand, Baker McKenzie confirmed that its tax, corporate and employment teams will gain two NQs each. Its banking, IT/commercial, IP, disputes, and pensions divisions will all acquire a new associate. According to Legal Cheek’s Most List, the young lawyers will start on a salary of £72,000.

Commenting on today’s result, Baker McKenzie’s trainee principal Arron Slocombe (pictured below) said:

As a firm, we pride ourselves on attracting and investing in the best and brightest talent and we’re delighted to have once again been able to make offers to such a high proportion of our trainees.

Today’s result marks a slight drop on the firm’s autumn 2016 performance. On that occasion, again from a qualifying cohort of 16, Baker McKenzie hung on to 14 of its newbies (88%).

The firm — which offers around 30 training contracts annually — performed well in Legal Cheek’s 2016 Trainee and Junior Lawyer Survey. Racking up a host of A*s and As, it went on to bag gongs for ‘peer support’ and ‘social life’ at our awards show in the City last month.

Baker McKenzie partner Arron Slocombe (middle), pictured with Legal Cheek publisher Alex Aldridge (left) and Legal Cheek’s University of Sussex campus ambassador Adam Dunford (right)

Baker McKenzie is one of a number of outfits to reveal its spring 2017 score.

In March CMS Cameron McKenna, Nabarro and Olswang, all firms due to merge next month, unveiled a combined result of 76%. Others to trumpet their retention rates include Slaughter and May (100%), Linklaters (86%), Allen & Overy (82%), Clifford Chance (67%), Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (84%), Norton Rose Fulbright (83%) and Osborne Clarke (100%).

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