White & Case boosts London NQ pay packets by 17% to £105,000

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By Thomas Connelly on

Trainees will trouser an extra £2,000

New York-based megafirm White & Case has upped the pay packets of its London-based newly qualified (NQ) lawyers to £105,000.

With junior lawyers until today earning £90,000, this salary boost equates to a rise of £15,000 or 17%. Legal Cheek’s 2017 Most List shows that White & Case’s NQs are now on earning par with their counterparts at Shearman & Sterling (which announced similar rises last week) and £3,500 ahead of junior lawyers at US outfit Sullivan and Cromwell (£101,500). Sitting just above White & Case is fellow New Yorker Davis Polk & Wardwell, which pays its London NQs £112,500.

White & Case’s trainees have also had extra cash chucked their way. Those in the first year of their training contract will now walk away with £46,000, up from £44,000, while those a year ahead will take home £50,000, up from £48,000.

Further up the ladder, associates with one-year post qualification experience (PQE) will see their pay packets rise from £95,000 to £110,000, while associates with two years PQE will now earn £120,000, up from £101,000. Salaries for lawyers three to nine years PQE are “discretionary”.

Commenting on today’s pay boosts, a spokesperson for White & Case said:

Student debt, increasing inflation and the high cost of living in London make competitive remuneration key for the brightest young lawyers in considering their career options. In this environment, and following discussions with partners and feedback from our London employee committee, White & Case has significantly increased its legal salary grid for 2017 in London, including an increase for our trainees. The increase in the legal salary grid is a positive change which also reflects the strong performance of the firm globally and of our people in London.

The firm, which offers around 50 London-based training contracts each year, was a solid performer in Legal Cheek’s 2016 Trainee & Junior Lawyer Survey. Notching up an A* for its international secondment opportunities, White & Case bagged As for training, quality of work, perks and social life.

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