What’s actually behind the 2% drop in training contracts, and why is the decline far less dramatic than headlines may suggest?
Training contract numbers across 100 Legal Cheek Most List firms have fallen by 2%, a smaller decline than many may have anticipated amid concerns about AI’s impact on legal recruitment.
In this episode of The Legal Cheek Podcast, founder and publisher Alex Aldridge sits down with events co-ordinator and future trainee Hannah Thompson to unpack this data, examining standout figures and discussing what the broader trends reveal for aspiring solicitors.
While AI is often perceived as a major disruptive force in the world of graduate recruitment, the latest figures suggest that it is not yet having a significant impact on trainee numbers.
Instead, Alex and Hannah explore whether the rise of solicitor apprenticeships may be the more dominant factor behind the 2% decline in available training contracts. With an increasing number of firms expanding their apprenticeship programmes, this could offer a more convincing, and potentially less alarming, explanation than the growth of AI.
Despite all the noise, the figures may offer some reassurance that AI is not, for now, replacing the trainee solicitor.
You can listen to the podcast in full via the embed above, or on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
The Legal Cheek Podcast is proudly independent. Thanks to our sponsor Simpson Thacher, home of the private equity training contract, for making that possible
Don’t think Links decided to drop their trainee numbers by 40 just because of SAs, which they have had since 2023.