Clifford Chance restores NQ lawyer pay following COVID cut
Exclusive: £100k package returns
Clifford Chance has restored salaries for its newly qualified (NQ) lawyers after opting to cut them earlier this summer in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Legal Cheek can reveal that NQ pay packets have returned to £100,000, compromising salary and bonus. The magic circle player — which doesn’t report its NQ base rate — reduced total remuneration to £94,500 in June.
Trainee pay remained unaffected — £48,000 in year one, rising to £54,000 in year two.
The money move comes just a month after fellow MC member Allen & Overy upped its NQ package to £95,000, made up of salary and sign-on bonus, after reducing it earlier this year to £90,000. It’s worth noting that this sizeable £95,000 sum falls short of the £100,000 pre-COVID package previously offered by the firm.
Meanwhile, Slaughter and May confirmed last week it is dishing out improved Christmas bonuses but sticking with its firm-wide pay freeze. The firm reduced the base rates of its NQs in May, from £92,000 to £87,000.
For all the latest commercial awareness info, and advance notification of Legal Cheek's careers events:
Sign up to the Legal Cheek Hub
18 Comments
CC boyz
Good
Kirkland NQ
Phat wadddd lmaoooooo
MoneyLaw
Get in! Links looking at you now…
CMS Trainee
The fact they even cut it in the first place tells you all you need to know about the financial state of this firm….
Hahahaha
Top trolling CMS trainee
Anonymous
£48,000 in year 1 – my god. That is going to be £20 an hour….. With rent, railcard, etc they might have a tenner a week of spending money left to buy sweets.
Anon
Still far far short of the US. Wonder how many will jump ship, only a matter of time
SC
Written with the expertise of a partner, on the keyboard of a university flat
CMS Trainee
Well this firm certainly didn’t cut salaries 😉
Anonymous
Because if they did you’d be on minimum wage you sweatshop oik
lol
this has all been messy, all these firms that reduced exposed a weakness, that in times like these, the first thing they do is cut people and salary. While the strong powerhouse do not flinch, instead the up the bonuses. These are indicators on the type of firms that are quick to act.
Also, I noticed Jones Day is still on that 100k apprentice money, what is even funnier is that they do not do any types of bonuses.
Anon
Still gotta work in cesspit that is the Wharf.
Truth
48k is one of the highest trainee salaries in the city – what you on? Most trainee salary’s on mid 30 to early 40s range.
Anon
They’re literally not in the City, look up their address then a map.
Cash money
Sorry, but you’re not a City firm if your first year trainees start on anything less than £38k.
The Truth
We just need lots more BAME partners at Magic Circle firms for the system to be fair and more BAME judges for that matter.
What?
Agreed but what relevance does that have here?
anon
I wouldn’t work at CC for £100k – from what I’ve heard it’s a total sweatshop. If you’re going to sacrifice your life/well-being for cash money, at least go to a US firm. And even that is a pretty bizarre way to spend your life.
Comments are closed.