£70,000 as a trainee? £181,000 as a newly qualified solicitor? Those are some seriously impressive pay packets. But climb further up the legal ladder, and the financial rewards reach a whole new level.
Legal Cheek’s latest Firms Most List reveals that profit per equity partner (PEP) at the top of the table has reached an eye-watering £8.2 million. That’s a cool £1.5 million jump from the £6.7 million figure topping last year’s rich list.
Much like the trainee and NQ salary rankings, US heavyweights continue to dominate the upper reaches of the table, with several posting average profits north of £5 million per equity partner. But the UK’s homegrown firms aren’t exactly scraping by either, with leading outfits reporting multi-million-pound figures of their own.
Of course, big money often comes with big demands. As Legal Cheek’s recent working hours analysis reveals, juniors at some of the highest-paying firms are clocking 12-hour-plus days, with average finishing times stretching past 10pm.
And for some lawyers, the hefty pay packet can become a trap of its own. As a recent Legal Cheek story on the so-called ‘golden handcuffs’ of City law explored, expensive mortgages, private school fees and a taste for luxury can make those salaries surprisingly difficult to walk away from.
It’s also worth remembering that PEP isn’t quite the same as a personal payslip. The figures represent averages, meaning individual equity partners may earn considerably more or less. And not every partner holds equity status, with many instead receiving a salary rather than a share of the firm’s profits. Some figures are also estimates based on publicly available information.
So, just how lucrative is life at the top? Here’s how the latest PEP figures stack up across the country’s leading law firms 💷👀
Time for a PEP talk: How much are equity partners earning?
Any intel on salary partner salaries at these firms?