Pinsents pay: NQs up to £68,000 while trainees handed £2,000 increases

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By Katie King on

A good summer for City law pay

Pinsent Masons has become the latest City law firm to up pay for both its newly qualified (NQ) talent and its trainees, Legal Cheek can reveal.

The international outfit has confirmed that its London associates will begin lawyer life on £68,000, up 5% from £65,000. This pay hike, effective from next month, sees Pinsent Masons leapfrog Osborne Clarke (£65,000), Dentons (£65,000), Stephenson Harwood (£66,000) and CMS (£67,500) on the NQ pay scale.

Deborah McCormack, head of recruitment and graduate development at the firm, said:

We continue to offer our NQs a well-rounded experience combined with a healthy financial package. Our trainees and NQs receive exposure to our impressive client base whilst working in a collaborative and progressive environment.

It’s happy days for the firm’s London trainees too, who will soon earn an extra £2,000 per year. First years at the 22-office commercial powerhouse are up to £40,000, while second years will be raking in £43,000. You can see what all the top firms pay their trainees, and their NQs, on the Legal Cheek Most List.

Moving away from the capital, Pinsent Masons has increased its English regional NQ pay by £2,000 to £42,000. The firm — which offers approximately 72 training contracts a year — will be upping pay in Scotland from £38,000 to £39,000, and in Belfast from £27,000 to £28,000. Second year regional trainees have also been handed a healthy boost from £28,500 to £29,750.

Cash aside, what’s it like to work at Pinsent Masons? The firm, known for its less London-centric approach to legal practice, fared well in the Legal Cheek Trainee and Junior Lawyer Survey. It scored As for training, quality of work, peer support, partner approachability and social life.

Pinsent Masons is one of many firms to up trainee and NQ salaries in what’s shaping up to be yet another summer of City law pay hikes.

To give you a run down: DLA Piper dosh is up 7% to £75,000 for NQs, while Stephenson Harwood has increased lawyer lolly to £66,000 and trainee money by 4% a year. Salaries at Simmons & Simmons are up too, this time to £71,000 in London, with Holman Fenwick Willan and Ince & Co also nudging their NQ money to £62,000 and £63,500 respectively.

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