CMS and Simmons boost NQ lawyer salaries

£95k and £100k

CMS and Simmons & Simmons have joined a raft of City law firms in boosting the salaries of their newly qualified (NQ) solicitors in London.

Legal Cheek can reveal CMS has increased base pay from £82,000 to £95,000, which equates to an extra £13,000 or 16%.

The Legal Cheek Firms Most List 2022 shows NQs are now on the same levels of cash as their counterparts at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, Mayer Brown and Norton Rose Fulbright.

The rise comes some six months after the firm boosted London NQ rates from £75,000 to £82,000.

Salaries in the firm’s regional offices are also up. Base rates in Bristol now sit at £61,000 (previously £50,500), while Manchester and Sheffield pay has moved to £51,750 (previously £42,500). Glasgow and Edinburgh NQs will now earn £51,750 too (previously £41,500). This marks increases of 21%, 22% and 25% for these offices, respectively.

Simmons, meanwhile, has announced pay rises of its own. NQs in London will earn a base rate of £100,000, up 14% from £88,000.

This change puts Simmons in the £100k NQ salary club with the likes of Macfarlanes, Hogan Lovells and Freshfields.

Simmons has also bumped NQ pay in the Bristol office to £68,000. Previously £56,000, this is an extra £12,000 or 22%. The new salaries are effective from 1 January 2022.

Our Firms Most List 2022 shows CMS dishes out around 95 TCs each year while Simmons provides around 24.