HR teams play the latest round of NQ salary "stick or twist".
Linklaters and Allen & Overy have both raised pay for their newly qualified solicitors to £125k.
"We have increased our NQ salaries to £125,000 p.a. in line with the market," an A&O spokesperson confirmed to RollOnFriday.
The rise follows previous indications by both firms that they would resist the City pay war. Last summer, Allen & Overy told its lawyers that the firm was freezing associate salaries. While Linklaters sent an internal email to say that it wouldn't "rush into matching salaries at NQ level."
The 16% increase (up from £107,500) was introduced by both firms on 1 May. Presumably it will go down better with A&O NQs than the £10 'Percy Pig bonus' offered to some lawyers at the firm last year.
NQ base salary at Links and A&O is now on a par with fellow Magic Circle firms Clifford Chance and Freshfields. Slaughter and May currently pays its NQs £115k. While Silver Circle firm, Herbert Smith Freehills, is in a similar ballpark paying its NQs £120k.
However, given that it has been a year since both Clifford Chance and Freshfields upped their NQ pay to £125k, it remains to be seen whether those firms will raise in the near future, setting a conundrum for their rivals to play catch-up again.
Playing chicken in a different field, 'BigLaw' US firms with offices in London, still offer the biggest wedge by far to their junior lawyers.
The elite US firms have adopted the Cravath salary scale over the pond, which is converted to sterling salaries when paid to lawyers in London. This has led to eye-watering sums, particularly due to favourable FX rates in recent times (some NQs may still offer thanks to Kwasi Kwarteng and Liz Truss on pay day).
Members of the £170k+ club for NQ salary include the likes of Akin Gump, Kirkland & Ellis and Vinson & Elkins.
Has your firm raised salary? Let RollOnFriday know.
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Comments
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About time. The failure to match NQ pay at other MC firms was disgusting.
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As I could still be earning 40% more for doing the same hours at a US firm, I am basically working for free from mid-afternoon onwards.
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Very bunched however, 3/4PQE at Links earning same as NQ at a US firm. Not sure I would be too happy about only earning marginally more than an NQ when they don’t even know what they are doing most of the time
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Macs, Travers, Ashursts to raise to 115k?
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You should always double down on 11.
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When is Simmons & Simmons raising salaries? Below market/competitors.
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Will Baker McKenzie raise too?
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I wonder how much a Robot lawyer using AI will earn?
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Elite shops like Latham and Paul Hastings are paying £167.5k NQ.
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you’re going to get a lot more interesting mix of work and experience at Linklaters and A&O. US firms are PE and finance process factories filled with Oxbridgers who have grade 8 in piano, a patigonia gilet/flowery dress and no idea about law.
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family, absolutely no one thinks Latham is elite. their DD reports look like they let the vac schemers have a go.
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@09:57- Simmons has trailed the market on pay for over a decade, if I rightly recall.
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@11:45 - of course firms’ reputations are built on the quality of their DD reports
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Let this sink in.
I'm a legal director in the regions. I'm on just over half that NQ salary.
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Two mid market firms raise NQ salaries - yawn.
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yes that’s right - quality of work doesn’t matter at all. it’s just about fancy glass offices and big salaries.
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It says on a par with other firms, but that’s with last year’s salary bands. So won’t they just almost immediately fall behind again when those other firms raise rates later on?
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Why don’t we ever hear anything about Simmons here?
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@14:05 so why do people stay at Simmons?
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Ain’t updates on Eversheds rising?
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I’ve heard that there’s been a mass exodus of associates from A&O. How true is this?
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@Concerned Mama
Probably for the work life balance and not getting beasted like at other places.
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Beats me why anyone would stay at Simmons
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This is just SICK!!!
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Office rumour that Ashurst raising to 120k in line with HSF. Considering the likes of Travers are sinking, it seems the right time for some firms to reposition themselves in the legal market
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Importantly…why are people still at Linklaters?