Weil, Gotshal & Manges announced this week that all its London lawyers will receive a 15% pay rise. And one disgruntled associate has complained to RoF that it's not nearly enough.

Given that many firms have frozen salaries in the wake of Brexit a rise of this scale would seem to be very good news indeed. Apparently not for everyone. To the sound of the world's smallest violin, an insider complained that associates "are not happy", and that "as the firm operates on bands, most people (with the exception of NQ-2PQE), will fall in the middle of the bands--meaning pay is in line with Magic Circle".

    How it might have looked

Hmmm. No it isn't. A 3PQE lawyer at Clifford Chance now earns £120,500 p.a. which is nearly ten grand less than the most inept Weils' associate pulls in at that level. Associates will be unhappy that their firm isn't matching the New York rates on offer at Kirkland & Ellis's London office, where NQs recently found themselves earning £125,000 p.a.. But Cleary Gottlieb has just announced a 9% pay rise for associates, with NQs making £105,000 p.a., so Weil is hardly trailing the pack.

PQE
Weil
Clifford Chance   
Kirkland*   
 NQ  £115,000  £85,000  £135,000
 1  £120,750  £95,000  £142,000
 2  £125,000 - £138,000
 £109,500  £157,000
 3  £130,000 - £149,500
 £120,500  £176,000
 4  £143,750 - £172,500
 NA  £195,000

A spokeswoman for Weil confirmed that the salary rises had been backdated to 1st July and would be reviewed again at the end of the year.

*Kirkland pays salaries in US dollars - exchange rate accurate as of 8th September 2016
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Comments

Anonymous 09 September 16 11:00

Pretty surprised as Weil is usually matched with Latham and Kirkland. Seems to be falling behind.

Anonymous 09 September 16 15:37

It makes you want to weep poor dears. They might be better off on a zero hours contract in a supermarket. Get a life please.