Linklaters has announced pay rises for its trainees and junior associates, but for the first time the lawyers will be paid according to their performance.

Until 1 May Linklaters paid 2PQE associates £78,250 and 3PQE associates £89,000. Now their salary will depend on how much they dazzle the rest of the department. The firm's move away from a lock-step scheme for associates means they will be judged according to five "competency criteria" (technical ability, client care, team work, business management and dancing).

Prodigies can earn up to £82,000 if they are 2PQE, and £93,500 if they are 3PQE. But lazy strugglers who burp at clients or slap colleagues could now be paid up to £6,000 less than their übermensch peers, and up to £1,500 less than lawyers of the same level last year.

  A Linklaters associate stops work briefly to consider whether she might have a chance at getting the top salary, thereby immediately losing her chance of getting the top salary

Linklaters is following in the footsteps of Freshfields, which moved to a similar system in 2012 (which it calls 'career milestones'). Neither has gone as far as RPC, whose Managing Partner Jonathan Watmough said "the concept of the flat rate has passed its sell by date" and which last September became the first City firm to abandon flat rates for NQs. However little they are beasted, Links NQs will still all be paid £65,000, matching the amount announced by Slaughter and May earlier this month.
  1st seat trainee
NQ
1PQE
2PQE
3PQE
 Linklaters  £40,000
(£39,500)
£65,000
(£64,000)
£70,500
(£69,500)
£77,500 to £82,000
(£78,250)
£87,500 to £93,500
(£89,000)
Slaughter and May
 £39,500 (£39,000)  £65,000 (£63,000)
 £70,000 (£69,500)
 £79,000 (£78,000)  £89,000 (£87,500)
 Allen & Overy
 £39,000  
 £64,000
 £69,500  £78,500  
 £89,000
 Clifford Chance
 £39,000  £63,500  £69,500  £78,200  
 £87,800
 Freshfields  £39,000  £65,000  £72,500  £80,000  £90,000
Tip Off ROF

Comments

Anonymous 16 May 14 11:56

As with everything at Links, the system will be about as clear as mud, and only those whose cosy up to the right partners will see the top rate. Everyone else will likely get a pay cut in real terms.

Anonymous 16 May 14 14:21

@10:06 - 'cosying up' to the right partners as a junior at Links, or any MC/large City firm, is a very fraught tactic; firstly, a junior's perspective of who are the right partners will cut across upper level echelons of political intrigue and positioning further up the tree inbetween the floor and canopy, and even if done successfully (even if naturally by simply 'getting on') it can cause sniping from certain senior associates who are embittered from being downtrodden and run through the mill by such partners for umpteen hundred hours over the past few years.. (and for sucha lowly six figure sum and 30% bonus, poor thing) ..much better chance of working on your "dancing" category.. but don't show anyone up with your moves, now

Anonymous 16 May 14 15:11

So lockstep for partners is good because is stops pointless and damaging competition, but good for associates because it encourages valuable competition.

Anonymous 16 May 14 15:26

I have got to say that I am reading this as Senior In-House Legal Counsel and thinking, why do I want to use Linklaters when I know that there is no way that these salaries are justified by the level of knowledge of NQs, 1 and 2 PQEs. I know the City firms can support these salaries, but I am of a mind to use other more competitive and client-focused firms, who can offer the same quality for less.

Anonymous 16 May 14 16:54

Actually the really lazy strugglers would get no salary increase at all. The next band for those who apparently meet all expectations amounts to a cut on previous rates.

Anonymous 16 May 14 16:57

Anyone who starts a comment with "as Senior In-house Legal Counsel" is highly likely to be Simmons/Ashurst etc. marketing bods.

Anonymous 18 May 14 00:11

Sorry but junior lawyers hardly "know jack". I often know more than clients who are "Senior In-House Legal Counsel" and have 8 years + PQE on me. The hours we work alone justify our salaries which are actually crap. Anyone who thinks this is a good salary is clearly working in the regions or is at a mid-tier or, dare I say it, high street outfit.

Anonymous 19 May 14 23:07

The senior counsel talks a lot of sense. A newly qualified, who probably didn't even do a law degree is not worth £65k as a practitioner of law.

Anonymous 20 May 14 15:08

23:11 - if you think that in regional firms we're doing 9-5 you couldn't be more wrong. Lawyers in large regional firm are doing "London hours" but for a raction of the pay. The difference in the cost of living does not account for that difference either. It pains me to deal with NQs in magic circle firms - as in-house counsel says they don't know a thing but get paid a fortune for it

Anonymous 20 May 14 16:46

The client facing type of knowledge is not what junior lawyers are paid for - it's their document management (churning!) and attention to detail. Utlimately, despite whatever insights are offered by the senior lawyers, its the churn hours which add up on the clock and make up the majority of time billed.

Anonymous 20 May 14 16:47

@13:21 re "cosying up to the partners", anyone who has worked at Links, or to be honest any similar type of law firm, will understand what I meant. If your face is deemed to fit (and this only sometimes has something to do with whether or not you are any good at your job) you will more easily tick the boxes that mean you will be at the top of the range of these new salary bands. From experience (actually on the positive side of things before anyone suggests I am bitter) the decision on things such as bonus and getting on the "best deals" is really very arbitrary. It's therefore a very bad idea to build in this kind of subjectivity to salary. Isn't that what bonus is for?

Anonymous 21 May 14 00:07

agree with 'anon 14:08'.

I work in the regional office of a large firm and I'm in the office most days 9-7. A decent NQ pay in the regions is £37k, in London, £60k. I don't feel this reflects the 'London cost of living' and the extra hours Londoners put in, it's worth much more. Further, in the regions I get much more responsibility and client contact (which is great) but if I was doing what I'm doing in London it'd be for the work and salary of a 2/3PQE.

Also - I'm often working on deals from the London office so the work is identical!

Anonymous 21 May 14 12:48

I'm sorry 23:07 but if you think 7pm is hometime rather than mid-afternoon then you are a world away from MC hours.

Anonymous 21 May 14 15:24

Can we please stop all this nonsense of comparing working hours between the City and regions. Having worked in both, I've known lawyers (in both City and regions) work solidly from 9am to 7pm and then head home - presumably because they have lives. I've also known lawyers (again, in the City and regions) stretch out their day from 9am to 11pm and beyond by taking constant coffee breaks, popping out to run errands, going to the gym in the mid-afternoon and holding pointless meetings. City hours does not necessarily mean more work.

Anonymous 21 May 14 19:23

having lived in leeds most of my life & moved to London to work for an MC firm, I would say that the cost of living (namely rent) is about triple.