It has emerged that Charles Russell is doing a top job of legging over its trainees (as well as its assistants and support staff).

RollOnFriday reported last week that the firm is only paying the legal minimum to staff facing redundancy - and that it delayed the announcement of its consultation process until year end, presumably to encourage lawyers to continue billing until the last possible minute. It has now emerged that it has told its first year trainees that they won’t receive any pay increase when they move into their third seats this September.

It’s the second kick in the nuts for the trainees. Last August, before they joined the firm, they received letters saying that they’d be paid a starting salary of £35,000. When they arrived they were informed that this was an unfortunate typo and they would actually be paid £32,500. They’ve now been told that they’ll be on this rate until they qualify. New trainees joining the firm this autumn will be paid even less, although no final figure has yet been agreed.

A Charles Russell trainee yesterday

The normal six and twelve month pay rises for trainees are often enshrined in their employment contracts. But a spokeswoman for Charles Russell said that its contracts simply stated that salaries would be reviewed, not increased - to the considerable concern of RollOnFriday logicians who do not understand who a review's conclusions can become known many months before the review takes place.

Still, if Charles Russell can find a way to wriggle out of doing the decent thing for its trainees, it’s a safe bet other City firms will too. Trainees anticipating an automatic pay rise should study their contracts very carefully…