Bosses model pay rises for junior attorneys ‘insane’

Legal bosses have criticised rival elite firms for giving their junior lawyers ‘insane’ pay rises, with some graduates on salaries starting at £150,000-a-year.

Pay for the most junior ranks at some UK ‘magic circle’ legal firms has jumped 50 per cent over the last five years.

Leading legal firms including Linklaters, Clifford Chance, A&O Shearman and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have all boosted salaries for graduates by 20 per cent this month to £150,000 per annum.

Competition with US firms with London bases has grown fierce, with companies across the pond now paying £180,000 to their newly qualified lawyers (NQs).

One boss for a global law firm called the increases ‘insane’, adding that the pay boosts reduced firms’ margin for error when recruiting newly qualified graduates. 

The top legal firms are increasing salaries for newly qualified lawyers to ‘insane’ levels, bosses have said

Top US companies’ salaries for junior lawyers start at $225,000 or £176,000 per annum in London, in line with their counterparts in the US.

The stark pay rises are raising concerns about possible higher expectation and workload of new employees.

A partner of one firm that had raised salaries for NQs said the move was designed to be ‘proactive’ to retaining talent, the FT reported.

Solicitors undergo a compulsory two-year work placement after graduating from law school.

Trainees at the UK’s top legal firms can then expect a salary of up to £61,000. 

Further pressure is heaped on UK firms by the fact that some US organisations do not offer training contracts in London. 

The UK’s ‘magic circle’ firms have increased pay for graduates by as much as 50 per cent in five years, while competing for talent with US companies based in the City

Richard Price, legal and corporate affairs director for mining firm Anglo American, expressed concerns that the rises would adversely impact work culture.

He said the pay boosts would mean NQs would have to work ‘extraordinarily hard’, potentially impacting both their personal lives and standard of work.

Despite adding that the move didn’t ‘bother me personally’, Mr Price said that the model wasn’t sustainable for lawyers’ welfare. 

One elite UK company that has so far declined to uplift its salaries is Slaughter and May. It said it was ‘closely monitoring’ its rivals and ‘considering our position’.

Other elite firm partners shared concerns that the increasingly competitive environment could exclude graduates from less privileged backgrounds and may make it harder to move underperformers on.