Legal Cheek revealed details of the offer back in November
CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang (CMS) will dish out a total of £250,000 in deferral payments after 25 of the firm’s future trainees agreed to push back the start dates of their training contracts.
The offer, which was revealed by Legal Cheek back in November, saw the outfit’s 46 incoming trainees offered £10,000 if they agreed to defer their training contract start date until February 2018.
CMS has now confirmed that 25 aspiring lawyers who were due to start their training contracts in August and September 2017 have accepted the voluntary deal. The firm — which will now have to cough up £250,000 in deferral payments — did not provide details of which of the three pre-merger firms the trainees came from.
The cash incentive is a direct result of CMS’ ongoing merger with City duo Nabarro and Olswang. With training contracts usually offered at least two years in advance, CMS was faced with the tricky job of trying to juggle the trainee intakes from an extra two firms. CMS has now been forced to splash the cash having discovered it was struggling to accommodate the influx in trainees.
The deferral payout news comes just weeks after the firm revealed a combined spring retention score of 76%. CMS — which will officially merge on 1 May — confirmed that from a combined 45-strong March qualifying cohort, 34 fresh-faced associates have put pen to paper on permanent deals. A further four lawyers will remain at the firm but on fixed-term contracts.
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