Eversheds and Pinsents boost NQ lawyer pay as more City firms join summer salary surge

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By Legal Cheek on

19

£110k and £105k

Man and pound signs
Eversheds Sutherland and Pinsent Masons are the latest law firms to dish out pay rises to their newly qualified associates.

Eversheds has upped salaries for its London-based NQs to £110,000 — a 10% rise from the current £100,000.

Meanwhile, Pinsents has increased its London NQ salaries from £97,000 to £105,000, representing an 8% rise.

Both increases take effect from September.

The 2025 Legal Cheek Firms Most List

In the regions, Pinsents also confirmed NQ rates will move from £63,000 to £66,500.

The pay boosts follow recent rises at Ashurst (£125,000 to £140,000), DLA Piper (£110,000 to £130,000), and CMS (£110,000 to £120,000).

The Legal Cheek Firms Most List shows Eversheds recruits around 50 trainees each year, while Pinsents takes on 60.

19 Comments

RPC Associate

Not a sniff of a raise at RPC, as usual. Market rate is still £90k, right? Right?!

Reality check

The difference between £90k and £105k is only about 600 quid a month take home, ie not that much. Plus you probably clock off at 6 every day.

You can keep moaning about this on every single pay rise article or, if that extra 600 a month is worth it for you, you can vote with your feet and get a job elsewhere. The world doesn’t owe you a pay rise every year just because US firms with £3m PEP keep throwing money at their dead eyed zombie associates.

Ugh

The UK! The only country where people moan about getting higher salaries.

London rent is getting comparable to New York and our salaries are measly. Law is one of the only industries that force a change in the culture of having no money in England.

Rupert 🇺🇸

Chicken feed, dear mortals!

Anonymous

Odds on AG being next????

anon

Have Eversheds got a regional increase?

Anon

AG announcement imminent, this week or next

Bolton

Genuinely can’t call it: AG’s tight-fistedness v their ‘strategy’ of paying more than pinsents and not a penny more.

Anon

Don’t work at AG but if I was to guess, they’ll go to 110k in London and 68k to 72k in the regions

former future trainee solicitor

award winning response

r slash uklaw

you sounds like a redditer

Hugh Jass

Spot on – enough to not be lowest paying, but not enough to attract / retain real talent.

NQ

SH, you’re next lol?!

O

Yep been hearing rumours that they’ll follow suit – wonder how much to

Kirkland NQ

I fell off my chair laughing at this being called a “surge”! I spent more than that on cigars last Friday evening.

Lol

Course you did mate ..have fun on the weekends doing DD

Kirkland NQ

The only DD I do is on which Lambo to buy next.

kirkland nq fan

u r my rolemodel kirkland nq

Trainee rises

Any trainee salary rises ?

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