Rises in regions and Scotland too
Pinsent Masons has upped the salaries of its newly qualified (NQ) lawyers in London, the regions and Scotland.
The international outfit confirmed that NQs in the City will now receive a salary of £72,500 a year, up £2,500 (or 4%) from a previous rate of £70,000. Legal Cheek’s Firms Most List shows Pinsent’s London lot have leapfrogged the likes of Eversheds Sutherland (£72,000), K&L Gates (£71,000), Taylor Wessing (£71,000) and Addleshaw Goddard (£70,000), and now sit just behind their peers at Squire Patton Boggs (£73,000) and Stephenson Harwood (£73,000).
The firm, which offers around 71 training contracts each year, has also bumped pay outside London. NQs in the regions will now earn £44,000, up £1,000 (or 2%) from £43,000, while those in Scotland will receive a salary of £43,500, up £3,500 (or 9%) from a previous rate of £40,000.
While trainee pay in England remains unchanged, the firm’s rookies north of the border now earn £24,000 in year one, rising to £27,000 in year two — uplifts of £1,000 (or 4%) across the board.
News of the rises come just a week after Clifford Chance confirmed it had followed Freshfields’ lead and upped NQ pay to £100,000, in what has been described by some as an attempt to bridge the pay gap between the magic circle and top paying US outfit’s in the City. It is, however, worth noting that unlike its Anglo-German counterpart, Clifford Chance’s new six-figure salary includes a discretionary bonus.
Seemingly in response, a number of US firms went and upped their already impressive London NQ rates. Skadden bumped junior lawyer pay to £133,000, a rise of 13% from £118,000, while Shearman & Sterling increased NQ pay by 14% to £120,000.