Herbert Smith Freehills has increased its compensation package for its trainee solicitors and newly-qualified (NQ) solicitors, with NQs now earning £135,000. NQ pay at the firm will increase 12.5 per cent from £120,000 to £135,000 – a figure that now surpasses that of Slaughter and May which decided to remain at £125,000 in June. Trainees […]
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison is to match its US rivals on newly-qualified (NQ) solicitor pay, with a pledge to start taking on trainee solicitors in London. The firm is expected to have its first cohort of trainee solicitors start in London in September 2026. Trainee pay is currently undisclosed but the firm will […]
Bird & Bird and Holman Fenwick Willan are the latest firms to announce pay increases for their newly-qualified solicitors, with the latter rising to £100,000. HFW has increased its pay from £95,000 to £100,000, while Bird & Bird has put in place a slightly lower rise of £3,000 to £98,000. Bird & Bird’s increase comes […]
A general counsel – who qualified as a barrister – has taken to networking platform LinkedIn to protest against rules meaning she cannot sign off qualifying work experience (QWE) for those undertaking the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE). Natalie Connor, a VP of legal at Crowdcube and consultant GC for Legal Edge, has worked as a […]
Macfarlanes has increased its pay for newly-qualified solicitors by £25,000, as UK firms respond to rates set by the magic circle last month. The City firm has upped pay for NQs from £115,000 to £140,000, a rise of nearly 22 per cent. This heaps pressure on firms that include Slaughter and May on £125,000 and […]
Perkins Coie is designing a training contract that aims to harness the flexibility of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) and take up to a year off the traditional training contract route. The launch of a legal trainee programme in London is understood to have been signed off by the US firm and will be finalised […]
Salary increases across the City for newly-qualified lawyers has brought into sharp focus how much in-house lawyers are willing to pay for external counsel. Last week, US firm Goodwin upped its salary for NQs to £175,000 from £161,500. In May, Freshfields, Linklaters, Clifford Chance and A&O Shearman all boosted its pay for NQs by £25,000 […]
Sidley Austin has increased its base pay for newly-qualified (NQ) solicitors for the second time this year from £166,500 to £175,000. The pay increase will come into force from 1st July and is also understood to involve rises across the board for associates. Trainee solicitors will see a pay rise too, with first-year trainees moving […]
Hogan Lovells is the latest firm to join the pack in the NQ salary race, announcing an increase of almost 6 per cent for its most junior lawyers. The new NQ salary of £135,000 in London takes it above the pay packet offered by Slaughter and May, which recently announced it would not be increasing […]
Following the raft of newly-qualified salary rises in recent weeks, Slaughter and May is holding its pay for NQs at £125,000 – at least until November this year. Slaughters reviews its salary scales bi-annually in April and November and in its most recent review decided to keep pay for its most junior lawyers as is. […]
Goodwin has surpassed the newly-qualified solicitor pay offered by US firms Kirkland & Ellis and Vinson & Elkins, by upping its rates to £175,000. Pay for NQs increased from £161,500 from the start of June, a jump of nearly £15,000. Kirkland and Vinson & Elkins currently pay their NQs just over £173,000. Goodwin is also […]