Training contract stats 2015

Want to know the number of training contracts being offered and who's getting them?  The Law Society of England and Wales Annual Statistics Report 2015 provides an in-depth breakdown of the numbers, location and gender make-up of training contacts in the 12 months to July 2015.

Key findings related to trainees and training contracts include the following:

• The number of trainee registrations in the year to 31 July 2015 was 9% higher than in the previous 12-month period, jumping from 5,001 to 5,457.
• Of those additional registrations, 384 were by women and 72 by men.
• The number of training contracts was still significantly below levels of the (pre-credit crunch) mid-2000s, when they peaked at just over 6,000 in the year 2007-08.
• Regions outside of London were home to greater proportions of new trainees starting in 2014-15; the share of trainees in the City fell for the second consecutive year to its lowest since 2009-10.
• Private practice firms remained overwhelmingly favoured in terms of where trainees were employed, with over nine out of every 10 trainees entering the profession via private practice.
• The gender split among trainees in private practice was 35% men to 57% women.
• The largest firms maintained the largest share of trainees – ie, those with 26 or more partners accounted for almost half (49.4%) of all traineeships. However, that is a drop from 54.9% for the 12 months to July 2014.

For more information from the report that relates to the legal profession as a whole, see the L.C.N news story, “Law Soc annual stats survey reveals training contract numbers up”.