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A group of mid-tier UK law firms have handed out significant pay increases to their most junior lawyers as they attempt to keep pace with larger rivals in the race to attract and retain talent.
Eversheds Sutherland has raised pay for its newly qualified lawyers in London from £100,000 to £110,000, while those at Pinsent Masons will have their salaries increased to £105,000, from £97,000 last year, the firms told the Financial Times. Both increases take effect in September.
The rises follow Ashurst’s announcement last week that it has boosted NQ salaries by 12 per cent to £140,000 as of May 1, part of a trend that has seen remuneration explode in recent years.
Pay wars among the top tier led to increases of 20 per cent for junior lawyers at UK “magic circle” firms to £150,000 last year, as they sought to compete with the London offices of US counterparts offering as much as £180,000.
“Magic circle firms raised the bar significantly last year, which created a gulf between them and the firms that sit below it in the pecking order,” said Charlie Harvey, founder of legal recruiter Harvey and Partners.
That put pressure on the mid-tier firms to also increase pay because they “need to remain within touching distance of their larger rivals if they are looking to continue to have access to the best junior talent”, he added.
But there are some signs that the elite firms may not repeat such big increases this year with Slaughter and May, which advises some of the UK’s most valuable companies, holding pay at £150,000.
One managing partner at a mid-tier firm said they were disinclined to raise pay for junior lawyers because this would put pressure on the firm to also raise salaries of more experienced associates. But they conceded that increases at its competitors could force the firm to reconsider.
“Pay-bunching is a major gripe for many experienced associates . . . It may be that the war for talent is won at the junior level but with higher attrition at a mid/senior level,” said Ria Karnik, a managing director at legal recruiter Major, Lindsey & Africa.
The changes to base pay come after a number of UK mid-tier firms have tweaked their bonus schemes this year in an effort to compete with deeper-pocketed rivals without raising pay levels across the board.
Simmons & Simmons, RPC and Shoosmiths have all launched or updated policies that reward lawyers for the more hours they bill, in some cases paying extra payouts worth as much as 40 per cent of base salary.
Simmons is offering bonuses of between 25 per cent and 40 per cent of salary for associates who have recorded more than 1,800 billable hours in the past financial year.
The firm is yet to announce any changes to its pay for London-based NQs this year, which usually takes effect from July 1 and was increased from £105,000 to £120,000 in 2024. Simmons declined to comment on its plans for this year’s NQ pay.
