Slaughter and May has overhauled its associate development programme, bringing in a number of measures intended to improve feedback for junior lawyers and get them more involved in client development.

Associates are being encouraged to build relationships with in-house lawyers of their own level of seniority and to think more about business development themselves, rather than seeing it as the reserve of partners.

Associates with at least four years' post-qualification experience (PQE) will take part in the firm's Associate Leadership Development Programme (ALDP), which has seen the firm introduce a two-day course focusing on business and commercial awareness with Judge Business School, which is part of Cambridge University.

The other stages of the ALDP include internal training on client development skills as well as leadership training that will prepare associates for any management roles they may have in the future. The firm considered introducing MBA-style training but concluded it would be too time-consuming.

Meanwhile, Slaughters is also putting more focus on giving associates regular feedback, with lawyers expected to receive feedback from partners once each transaction concludes, rather than just at the point of their annual appraisal.

The measures have been introduced in the wake of Louise Meikle's appointment as head of human resources in December last year and follow discussions between Meikle, executive partner Graham White and practice partner Paul Olney on best practice for associate development.

White (pictured) said: "We want to encourage associates to think more widely about both the transactions they are working on and the firm's business, and to move away from any idea that the firm expects them to leave business development to the partners.

"It's about trying to make sure we communicate better the firm's strategy, involve them more in the relationship with clients, encourage participation in the full cycle of transactions (from pitching to post-transaction debriefs) and give them the framework to enable them to participate in growing the firm's practice."

Slaughters is also offering all associates the chance to take the Myers-Briggs personality test to provide insight into strengths and weaknesses.