In-house pay leaps 20 per cent throughout UK

According to a survey conducted by legal recruitment consultancy Taylor Root, average salaries in London and the South and in the Midlands and the North have all gone up by 20 per cent on last year.
Heads of legal in the North and the Midlands now earn an average of £88,000, compared to £108,000 in London and the South. This is a general rise of £7,000 for heads of legal in the North and the Midlands and £18,000 for those in London and the South.
According to Nick Root, founding partner of Taylor Root, the biggest rise in in-house earnings in the North and the Midlands has been in the top quartile. The survey states that salary packages in this range, which include cars and bonuses, can now go up to £228,000. Root puts the average at around £150,000.
"This is an amazing finding, reflecting a huge rise in head of legal salary packages in the North and the Midlands," Root said. "Only five years ago, we would have been surprised to find an in-house lawyer earning £100,000 anywhere in the country. That wages have risen by 20 per cent this year is even more astounding."
Root believes that this year's leap in wages in the North and the Midlands is linked to the huge salary increases received by lawyers in private practice last year.
"Salaries in private practice have gone ballistic," he said. "Companies have tried to increase their salaries at the same rate because they often compete for the same people as the private law firms. This trend is more pronounced in the North and the Midlands, where there is less of a disparity between the wages of private practice and in-house lawyers. We're now seeing more lawyers in these regions moving from private practice to become company heads of legal."