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Lawyers' salaries catch up with investment bankers'

5 February 2008

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Husnara Begum

Trainee solicitor pay has finally caught up with the graduate salaries on offer at investment banks, a new survey reveals.

The median starting salary in 2007 for trainee solicitors and their peers in investment banks or fund managers is £35,500, according to the Association of Graduate Recruiters' (AGR) winter survey.

Many of the large City law firms, however, pay their first year trainees above the AGR average.

As highlighted in the Lawyer2B.com salary index the magic circle firms Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters pay their new joiners £36,200, £35,700, £38,000 and £36,000 respectively.

US firms, including Bingham McCutchen, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Debevosie & Plimpton pay their first year trainees £40,000 while trainees joining Weil Gotshal & Manges and White & Case will receive starting salaries of £41,000.

The average trainee solicitor salary is expected to rise by 2.8 per cent in 2008 while investment banking and fund manager salaries are predicted to remain static.

This is the first time law firms have topped the survey albeit jointly. Compared with the figures published in the previous winter review, these salaries represent a considerable increase for law firms, but a slight drop (from £36,000) for City bankers or fund managers.

The median starting salary paid to graduates at AGR employers stood at £23,500 in 2007, according to the review, and is expected to inch up by a modest 2.1 per cent this year despite a predicted 16 per cent rise in vacancies.


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Readers' comments (3)

  • Anonymous | 5-Feb-2008 6:08 pm

    Yes but...

    I read this article with interest as a first year trainee on £38,000 who has a number of friends working at Investment Banks due to the fact that we all studied maths. Although my starting salary was slightly above my friends (who started two years ago) they did all manage to take home bonuses of over 100% of salary. I believe that while we trainee solicitors are arguably overpaid given our capabilities, we are still a long way behind many banks.
    Still, I suppose we shall have to see the results next year given current bonus prospects...

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  • Martin | 6-Feb-2008 7:49 pm

    catch up with the US

    The salary for a first-year associate at a Big Law firm in NY including the year-end bonus is at around 100 000 pounds. The duties do not differ much from those performed by the trainee-solicitors in the UK. The billing rates across the Atlantic are quite similar. What is the conclusion?

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  • Anonymous | 7-Feb-2008 10:54 am

    Catch up with the US . . .

    While part of the pay disparity is the result of US lawyers graduating from law school with debts upward of USD 100,000, this is only part of the story.
    Having worked in both the US and the UK, there is a tremendous gap between the abilities of a first-year US lawyer, who will have had at least four years' more university education and usually five or six years' more life experience than a UK trainee. Any US firm that is using its resources properly will be giving its first and second year lawyers significantly more responsibility than a UK trainee.

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