MoneyLaw but on a more modest scale
US stalwart Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has leapt about the MoneyLaw bandwagon, upping the pay packets of its London-based newly qualified (NQ) lawyers to a cool £105,000.
With NQs, until today, earning £96,000, this pay boost equates to a rise of £9,000 or 9%. But spare a thought for those lawyers at Cleary with one year post qualification experience (PQE). Thanks to the generous pay rise, an NQ at the New York-headquartered outfit will now pocket the same level of cash as a lawyer with 1PQE — £105,000.
Trainees have also had extra cash thrown their way. Receiving a pay increase of 14%, those in their first year of their training contract will take home £48,000, up from £42,000. Those a year ahead will now pocket £52,000, a rise of 11% up from £47,000.
Those further up the ladder haven’t been left out either. 2PQEs will now earn £112,000 and those with 3PQE under their belts will take home £125,000.
The firm — which provides around 18 London-based training contracts annually — has not matched the massive pay increases implemented by many of its US rivals. In the wake of the MoneyLaw movement sweeping the City, Akin Gump, Simpson Thacher, Milbank, Cadwalader, Davis Polk, Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins all upped its London NQ pay to £124,000.
Late last week, Chicago-headquartered outfit Sidley Austin hiked the pay packets of its NQs to £120,000. Marking a staggering rise of 33%, it would appear MoneyLaw mania shows no signs of subsiding.