Trainee salaries to be reviewed in the summer
Goodwin Procter has increased the salaries of its newly qualified (NQ) solicitors by 10%.
NQs at the London office of the US firm have seen their salaries soar from £125,000 to £137,500.
Meanwhile, trainee solicitor salaries, which currently stand at £46,000 in year one, rising to £50,000 in year two, are expected to be reviewed in the summer.
Today’s big money move brings Goodwin’s NQ salary further in line with its US rivals’ in London. Sidley Austin and Davis Polk & Wardwell pay their new associates similar levels of cash, according to our Firms Most List.
Yet, the salary hike still falls short of the pay packets awarded by the US firms that sit atop the NQ pay league, where the likes of Akin Gump and Kirkland & Ellis pay their new associates dollar-tied salaries of around £150,000.
US firms in London appear to have bucked the COVID NQ pay cut trend seen across global elite and magic circle law firms as they continue to splash the cash on their new associates, and in some instances, hand out sizeable bonuses. Some of the magic circle are keeping up appearances by increasing NQ salaries albeit not quite to their pre-pandemic levels.