Exclusive: The only way is up for trainee pay too
Jones Day has increased the pay packets of its newly-qualified lawyers (NQs) by a whopping £15,000.
Until recently, junior associates at the firm enjoyed a sizeable £85,000 pay cheque, exactly the same as their Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Clifford Chance counterparts. But it’s now been announced the firm will be paying its newbies £100,000 a year, whizzing Jones Day up the NQ pay league table. The big money move equates to a salary boost of £15,000 or 18%.
Leapfrogging the magic circle firms mentioned above, as well as Dechert (£90,000), Jones Day now sits just behind fellow US stalwart Sullivan & Cromwell (£101,500). You can check out what all the top firms pay on Legal Cheek’s Firms Most List.
It’s not just Jones’s Day’s NQs that are cashing in.
The firm — which offers 20 City training contracts a year — has also upped trainee pay. First years were until recently paid £45,000 for their efforts; that’s now up 4% to £47,000. And second year trainees have enjoyed an even bigger boost: their salaries are up 8% to £54,000. Again a scan of our Most List is helpful here; it shows that the firm’s second year cohort is now the third highest paid in London, with only Davis Polk and Sullivan & Cromwell offering more (£55,000).
Aside from the very enviable salaries, what’s Jones Day like to work at? The firm scored well in the Legal Cheek Trainee and Junior Lawyer Survey, earning an A* for social life and then As in quality of work, peer support, partner approachability, perks, offices and chances of secondment abroad. Jones Day’s canteen was rated a B, while its training got a C.
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