Norton Rose, Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), SJ Berwin and Stephenson Harwood have all confirmed trainee retention rates for their first intake of 2012.

Norton Rose has announced the details of its January 2012 qualifying round, with 18 newly-qualified lawyers (NQs) offered a position at the firm, equating to a 78% retention rate. The latest figures come after the firm kept on 14 of 16 (88%) of NQs in its September intake last year.

Recruitment head Sarah Kelly said: "Our January intake was larger than September's and we have offered four more places in this qualifying round. In the current economic climate our 78% retention rate is good and we are pleased to have kept our 100% acceptance rate."

Meanwhile, BLP has awarded jobs to 88% of its January NQs, retaining 15 out of a pool of 17. This is a slight drop on this time last year when 95% were kept on, with the same proportion taking jobs at the firm in September 2011.

Elsewhere, SJ Berwin has taken on 100% of its eight March 2012 NQs, while Stephenson Harwood has retained five (83%) of its six March qualifiers. SJ Berwin kept on 67% of the equivalent intake last year, while Stephenson Harwood retained 100% of its March 2011 intake.

SJ Berwin graduate recruitment partner Nicola Bridge (pictured) commented: "We're very encouraged by the quality of people qualifying at SJ Berwin where we put huge emphasis on our training."

The healthy retention rates across the firms confirm a trend recently identified in new research by the Chambers Student Guide, which showed that last year 81% of 2,253 newly-qualified lawyers across 123 firms were kept on.

This figure is up 4% on 2010, when 76% of 2,626 NQ lawyers were retained, after 74% of a comparable group were kept on in 2009.

However, the report does note that because many firms deferred the start dates of trainees in 2009, the qualifying class of 2011 was by far the smallest in recent years – down by more than 400 on 2010.