Jones Day hikes trainee pay to £41,000

The US firm has increased the first-year trainees pay packet from £39,000 up to £41,000, while its second-year trainees will continue to receive up to a £50,000 wage.

The news means that the firm’s trainee salary has now been brought in line with the remuneration packages paid by most US firms to junior lawyers.

Firms Bingham McCutchen, Kirkland & Ellis and Weil Gotshal & Manges currently offer their first-year trainees £40,000, £40,000 and £41,000 respectively.

However, each of these firms’ trainee wages remain dwarfed by Sullivan & Cromwell, which pays its first-year trainees £50,000.

The news follows several US firms announcing increases in their newly qualified lawyer salary, with Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, Kirkland and Weil rising pay to £80,000, £97,500, 97,000 and 97,000 respectively (29 February 2012).