Herbies raises associate salaries
Herbert Smith has hiked its associate salaries at the half-year stage with £2,000 being added to annual salaries as of the beginning of November.
Newly qualifieds are now on a salary of £66,000 while associates with one year’s post-qualification experience (PQE) will receive £71,000 and those with two years’ PQE will receive £83,000.
The move comes after the firm decided to freeze associate salaries at 2007-08 levels at the beginning of the current financial year.
A firm spokesman said: “In April we decided to freeze salary bands, but subsequently found ourselves slightly out of line with our peer firms. We announced trainee increases in June and also the commitment to review associates salaries at the half-year point.”
As reported on TheLawyer.com (19-Jun-2008), the firm hiked first-year trainee solicitor pay by 4 per cent from £36,000 to £37,500 while second-year trainees received a 6 per cent increase from £40,000 to £42,500. The rises took effect from 1 September.
In April 2007 Herbert Smith raised its salaries by an average of 15 per cent, with trainees seeing a rise from £31,000 to £36,000. Newly-qualifieds saw their salaries rise 16.4 per cent from £55,000 to £64,000. For associates with one and two years PQE, salaries rose 16.9 per cent to £69,000 and £81,000 respectively. Those with three years PQE saw a rise of 11 per cent to £90,000.
