£10k boost
The London office of US firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher has raised the salaries of its newly qualified (NQ) lawyers to a market-topping £180,000.
The move equates to an extra £10k, or just under 6%, putting the firm’s junior lawyers on the same level as their counterparts at three fellow US firms — Davis Polk & Wardwell, Gibson Dunn and Paul Weiss.
The Legal Cheek Firms Most List shows Willkie offers around seven training contracts each year, with trainee salaries starting at £60,000 and rising to £65,000 in year two.
The news comes just 24 hours after fellow US firm Ropes & Gray confirmed it had raised pay for its London NQs from £165k to £170k.
That’s quite interesting. Does anyone know how the scale goes after that? INB4 “oh, it’s Cravath”. No, not every US firm runs Cravath in London (Cleary, Weil, Ropes, etc, do not).
What’s important is what FX rate they’ve used if they do (floater, fixed) or if they don’t, how it scales up after NQ level.
Anyone know?
The salary scales up nicely but isn’t quite Cravath on account of a fixed exchange rate but it’s higher than the firms you note above.
It’s fixed not floating, and has been raised in proportion for all levels above.
🐤 🌽
Ah, Wee Willie Winkie offering peanuts again are they?
During the past few years, lawyers at city firms lower down the food chain would be rubbing their hands waiting for this to trickle down.
Unfortunately I don’t think we’ll see many sub-SC firms raise to be honest. I think Addleshaws set the tone last year. Other firms will follow suit now that they know you can buck the pay rise trend.
Just look at all that cheddar.