Trainees handed extra £7.5k
Ropes & Gray has turbocharged newly qualified (NQ) salaries in London by 13%.
NQs are now earning £147,000, plus bonus, up from £130,000, as of this month.
The salary increase means Ropes’ NQs have the same earning power as those at fellow London US law firms Akin Gump, Goodwin Procter and Milbank. Vinson & Elkins, however, continues its reign as the top-paying law firm in London where trainees rake in £153,300 upon qualification.
Ropes & Gray last increased NQ salaries in February of last year, from £120k to £130k. Some months later in July 2020 it confirmed it was keeping NQ salaries at the £130k rate whilst other firms were forced to chip away at new associate salaries owing to the financial uncertainty brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
In other firm news, Ropes & Gray has raised its trainee salaries in London by as much as 15%; first years are earning £57,500 (up 15% from £50,000) and second years £62,500 (up 14% from £55,000) as of 1 November 2021. The rises match those recently introduced at Cleary Gottlieb and Davis Polk.
Ropes & Gray’s London training programme has been running since 2011 and is now made up of 24 trainees.