Year-long pause
Half of the future Ince & Co trainees due to start in August 2018 have had their training contract start dates pushed back by a year.
The ten aspiring lawyers were asked if they’d voluntarily defer their start dates. The firm then decided, based on future trainees’ personal circumstances and other factors, who should start in 2018 and who should wait 12 months.
A spokesperson told us:
“We are proud of the quality of legal training provided at Ince & Co and over the last two years have retained approximately 90% of the trainees that joined us. To maintain these high standards, we believe that those trainees that are due to join us in August 2018 will benefit from a smaller intake.”
In compensation, the five soon-to-be rookies now starting in August 2019 have been given £7,000 each. First-year trainees at Ince & Co are paid £37,750, rising to £41,800 in second year and £63,250 on qualification, our Firms Most List shows.
This comes at an interesting time for Ince & Co. Last week, we reported the firm plans to make about 35 lawyers and support staff redundant. The firm told us that this would have “no impact” on the number of newly qualified (NQ) positions.
The City middleweight’s decision to defer training contracts is reminiscent of a similar move made by CMS in 2016.
Shortly after it was announced CMS Cameron McKenna would be merging with Nabarro and Olswang, Legal Cheek revealed the City outfit couldn’t accommodate all its future trainees. Twenty-five aspiring lawyers eventually agreed to push back their start dates, which cost the firm £250,000 in compensation.