Share your salary below the line 💬 💷
Newly qualified (NQ) solicitor salaries continue to grab headlines, with Legal Cheek’s latest exclusive data revealing that the highest-paying firm now offers its freshly qualified lawyers a whopping £181,000. But what happens to those eye-watering pay packets as associates climb the post-qualification experience (PQE) ladder?
While firms are generally happy to publicise their trainee and NQ salaries, as detailed in Legal Cheek’s Firms Most List, pay further up the associate ranks remains something of a mystery.
And with NQ salaries continuing to climb, are pay rises further up the ranks keeping pace, or is the gap between newly qualified and more experienced lawyers narrowing?
So, continuing what has become something of an annual tradition here at Legal Cheek, we’re calling on our trusty readers to spill the details in the comments section below. We want to know your firm (London or the regions), department, PQE level or class year and salary (base plus bonus for the latest financial year).
Regional office (Leeds) of UK law firm.
2PQE @ 72k plus bonus
Any insight on bonus amount/targets
This will be interesting….
City law firm 1PQE (silver circle) 170K + performance bonus
I call cap.
Yeah I’m calling troll. I’m 2PQE at silver circle firm (hate that term btw) and my total comp isn’t even 170k
Any partners at US firms want to disclose their pay?
5 year equity partner, 8.4m
160k base, 5PQE, Birmingham office of international firm
I smell something
Anyone spill on DLA’s regional offices?
Region. 6 PQE. £120k plus bonus (£30k last year being max for CH hours). 8% pension contribution.
Helpful thank you. Roughly what hours are you expected to hit to get maximum bonus?
£110k plus bonus tied to dept performance. I
qualified 4 years ago and spent two years in London before moving to the regions
Regional office (in the North West) of international firm. 2PQE, £64k plus bonus (range anywhere up to 20%, but maximum is dependent on circa. 2k hours).
AG or Pinsents anyone?
2PQE in Glasgow office of international law firm £57k.
£60k second year trainee at a London law firm & fixed bonus for all trainees
Interested to hear about regional salary at top regional firms (e.g. AG, Pinsents, Eversheds, Squires, DLA) at 6/7 PQE level and above, including bonus if possible.