Trainee pay also up
Macfarlanes has become the latest law firm to raise junior lawyer salaries in the City.
Legal Cheek can reveal that the firm has bumped newly qualified (NQ) rates from £140,000 to £150,000, a £10,000 rise of 7%.
Trainees have also enjoyed an increase, now earning £60,000 and £65,000 in their first and second years respectively, up from £56,000 and £61,000 previously. The firm recruits around 33 trainees each year.
The Legal Cheek Firms Most List 2026 shows the uplifts put Macfarlanes’ NQs ahead of HSF Kramer, Hogan Lovells Cadwalader and Ashurst Perkins Coie, all at £145,000 and brings the firm’s pay in line with the entire Magic Circle.
The firm has confirmed that the NQ rise will be effective from 1 July 2026, whilst the trainee pay hike will come into effect this September.
Luke Powell, managing partner at Macfarlanes, commented:
“We want to recruit highly talented and committed people to our firm and have them become exceptional lawyers with us over the long term. Our salaries support that and reflect our strong position in the market.”
The move comes amid a renewed junior lawyer pay war, with US outfit Milbank boosting its NQ pay last month to $235,000 (roughly £176,000) and Quinn Emanuel topping the London NQ market with a record-breaking £189,000 pay packet. Though it’s worth noting that, as things stand, Quinn Emanuel does not have a UK training contract programme.
With PEP of £3.1m is this really such a surprise? Their NQ rates should be higher than the Magic Circle.
All trainees/NQs should look at this https://www.legalcheek.com/the-firms-most-list/?metakey=_cmb_average_profit
MC as a thing is a bit redundant now
Just for perception I suspect the MC may rise to 160k or 165k but can’t see them going higher
Do you think magic circle firms will respond to this?
CC, Links etc will probably move to £160k now bc of the pressure. But why? It’s so ridiculous. Just because a ‘Silver Circle’ firm has matched the ‘Magic Circle’, the ‘Magic Circle’ now has to raise their NQ salary, probably leading to pay bunching across the board, for absolutely no reason at all because these salaries will never match the ‘New Magic Circle’ (aka US firms apparently, as of this week). All because of some terms The Lawyer Magazine invented decades ago which they themselves now say are obsolete. Tomfoolery.
Why complain?
Unless you’re a partner and this is eating into your profits, why are you sour about juniors receiving pay rises? As someone who doesn’t even work in a MC/SC firm, I’m in favour of headlines like this because I know it’ll trickle down to lower firms.
Perhaps I’m a client who is fed up of paying increased ££££ for NQ billables because firms feel the need to rejig their salaries according to antiquated labels
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