Akin Gump caps salary exchange rate following drop in pound
London NQs continue to earn £179k
US outfit Akin Gump has confirmed that it has placed a cap on the exchange rate it uses to calculate its London lawyers’ salaries.
Earlier this week Legal Cheek speculated that the drop in the value of the pound against the dollar might lead to jubilation amongst lawyers working at some US-headquartered firms’ London offices. That’s because many of these firms base their pay on a dollar figure which is then converted to pound sterling.
Many US firms decide a spot rate that fixes the exchange rate for a certain period of time. For Akin Gump that spot rate is decided at the beginning of each quarter, with the last quarter’s rate running from July to September being set at £1 = US$1.2005.
At the start of the year, the firm decided on £1 = $1.3553 for its spot rate which put its March salary hike at £159k. The firm then tweaked this rate to £1 = $1.3109 for April to June, boosting NQ base pay to £164,000. The July to September adjustment handed NQs a base salary of £179,000.
The US outfit has now decided to stop matching the actual FX rate, introducing an upper limit of 1.2 and a lower limit of 1.5.
| Class year | Cravath scale | Live conversion rate (£0.92:$1 used here) | Akin Gump pay based on capped conversion rate |
| 2014 | $415,000 | £382,500 | £346,000 |
| 2015 | $400,000 | £368,500 | £333,500 |
| 2016 | $370,000 | £341,000 | £308,500 |
| 2017 | $345,000 | £318,000 | £287,500 |
| 2018 | $295,000 | £272,000 | £246,000 |
| 2019 | $250,000 | £230,500 | £208,500 |
| 2020 | $225,000 | £207,500 | £187,500 |
| 2021 | $215,000 | £198,000 | £179,000 |
Figures have been rounded
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19 Comments
Anon
Those poor kids. Should we start a GoFundMe to help them survive on such a measly 179k salary!!!! How will they survive on just 8 times the national average whilst in their 20s.
Anon
No, £179k is a lot of money. Are you crazy? I won’t be contributing
Anon
Don’t hate the player
Age discrimination or
Hey I resent that, I’m 31 so please don’t age discriminate if I’m on 179k in my early 30s.
Mrs Gump
Run Forr…
No…
I can’t be bothered…
A
Good
Mrs Curious
Are you at Akin, Mrs Gump?
Care to share which teams are the busiest?
Anon
Looks like US firms have called the market!
Boss
Weak sauce
KLAXON
Thx fresher. Now back to Introduction to Contracts you go, first tutorial is coming up next week.
Boss
If I’m a fresher I’m out drinking and getting laid every night. Enjoy being a desk jockey 😘
sad
because clearly you’re no longer able to do this as a lawyer (?)
enjoy your fresher’s week
Boss
Ask your mum
Hearer of Klaxon
Woo woo iz da sound of da poleez!
Suffer
Lawyers truly suffer eh. 179k? Pft! lol
Insider
Stephenson Harwood increased maintenance grant to 11.5k
Lol
And so?
who
who?
what
what
Comments are closed.