Herbert Smith's new Belfast outpost is rumoured to be paying its lawyers as little as £10 per hour.
The firm is due to open the office in April, where its lawyers will crunch through large numbers of litigation documents on the cheap - last year Herbies said that it would have a significantly lower cost base than London. And it's clearly much, much lower. Sources tell RollOnFriday that pay for qualified solicitors is pitched at £10-£11 an hour, and "legal assistants" (that's paralegals to everyone else) will pocket a mere £7.
To be fair Herbert Smith isn't alone in this - back in the depths of the credit crunch the then Lovells was reported to be paying some of its paralegals just £9 an hour. And the lawyers of Belfast will presumably still be doing an awful lot better than their colleagues across the border in the Republic, who somehow have to scratch a living out of a completely bust economy. But come on: £7 an hour? That's Tesco shelf stacker rates, and less than the firm pays its London cleaners.
A spokesman for the firm said that "salary rates are competitive in the local market, which is consistent with the number and high quality of applications we have had for the legal roles in Belfast".
Tip Off ROF
The firm is due to open the office in April, where its lawyers will crunch through large numbers of litigation documents on the cheap - last year Herbies said that it would have a significantly lower cost base than London. And it's clearly much, much lower. Sources tell RollOnFriday that pay for qualified solicitors is pitched at £10-£11 an hour, and "legal assistants" (that's paralegals to everyone else) will pocket a mere £7.
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Someone earning more than a Hebert Smith lawyer yesterday |
To be fair Herbert Smith isn't alone in this - back in the depths of the credit crunch the then Lovells was reported to be paying some of its paralegals just £9 an hour. And the lawyers of Belfast will presumably still be doing an awful lot better than their colleagues across the border in the Republic, who somehow have to scratch a living out of a completely bust economy. But come on: £7 an hour? That's Tesco shelf stacker rates, and less than the firm pays its London cleaners.
A spokesman for the firm said that "salary rates are competitive in the local market, which is consistent with the number and high quality of applications we have had for the legal roles in Belfast".