Dechert boosts trainee salaries to £50k and £55k

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By Thomas Connelly on

Rises of up to 11% 💷

Dechert has boosted the salaries of its trainees as law firms across the City continue to splash cash in a bid to attract and retain the best junior lawyer talent.

The US outfit confirmed year one rates in London now sit at £50,000, up 11% from £45,000, while year two trainees are in line to receive £55,000, a 10% uplift from £50,000. Pay for newly qualified (NQ) solicitors currently sits at £125,000.

The Legal Cheek Firms Most List 2022 shows today’s cash injection puts Dechert’s trainees on par with their opposite numbers at a raft of elite US and magic circle law firms.

The 2022 Legal Cheek Firms Most List

You’ll face stiff competition if you’re looking to secure a spot at Dechert — it offers just ten TCs each year — but expect good things once you’ve got a foot in the door. It chalked up an impressive A* for training in our latest Trainee and Junior Lawyer Survey, as well as As for quality of work and peer support, among others.

But rookie bragging rights, in terms of money terms anyway, go to those over in the London offices of Davis Polk and Cleary Gottlieb, who both shot to the top of the trainee pay table this month with improved rates of £57,500 in year one and £62,500 in year two.

Keen to find out more about life at the firm or a life in law more generally? Why not sign up to the Legal Cheek UK Virtual Law Fair on 4 November 2021. It takes place on Thursday 4 November, between 2-5pm, and features 70 law firms, including all the magic circle and leading US firms’ London offices, international firms, and national firms across the UK.

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