Mayer Brown has offered its incoming London trainees the option to defer their training contracts in exchange for a one-off payment of £10,000, with three agreeing to postpone their start date by 12 months.

The US firm's London arm, which takes on between 20 and 25 trainees per year across two intakes in March and September, asked a total of 47 future trainees across four intakes to defer by a year due to business activity levels.

Despite only three future trainees taking up the option to defer their September 2013 start date, Mayer Brown confirmed that the remaining 44 will still be able to take up their place as normal. The three future trainees that accepted the payment will start their training contracts in September 2014.

A spokesperson commented: "We asked for a small number of volunteers to defer their training contracts. Three people from the September 2013 intake volunteered and they will be deferred for 12 months."

Mayer Brown is also currently in the process of concluding a London redundancy consultation which could see up to 20 support staff and legal roles affected, while it has also agreed deals to sublet around 10% of its London office space in 201 Bishopsgate to other law firms.

The news comes after Wragge & Co recently approached its September trainee intake with an offer of £5,000 to defer their training for one year. However, none took up the option, with all 24 now set to take up their place as normal.