In-house pay can’t catch private practice

The salaries of in-house lawyers are still failing to compete with the amounts awarded to their private practice counterparts.

As first revealed on www. thelawyer.com (3 November), a CLO Programme survey published last week revealed that the average basic salary for a general counsel was £136,820. In stark contrast, this year’s The Lawyer UK 100 Annual Report revealed that the lowest average profit per equity partner (PEP) out of the top 50 firms was £145,000.

However, the highest paid general counsels are closing in on partners in private practice. The survey found that some general counsel’s basic salary is as high as £975,000, which exceeds the average PEP of any of the UK’s top 100 firms.

The survey found that the sectors offering the highest basic salaries are financial, chemicals, food, drink and tobacco.