Trainee solicitor salaries knocked off top spot
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Would-be lawyers are facing lighter pay packets after a survey by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) has revealed that law firms have fallen behind investment banks in terms of graduate salaries.
The AGR’s winter survey, published today, has revealed that the median starting salary for law firms has dropped from first to second place behind investment banks from £37,000 in 2008 to £35,000 in 2009.
Carl Gilleard, Chief Executive of the AGR said: “This couldn’t have come at a worse time for the current crop of graduates who are the first to enter the workplace with the daunting task of paying off three year’s of tuition fees ahead of them.”
Investment bank or fund managers topped the salary chart in 2009 with a median starting salary of £38,250 – an increase of £3,250 when compared to 2008.
The average graduate salary in 2009 remained at £25,000 and that trend looks set to continue in 2010.
Meanwhile, the survey predicts that trainee vacancies will rise by 7.4 per cent this year. This compares favourably to last year when the AGR only predicted at 2 per cent rise.
Check out the Spring 2010 issue of Lawyer 2B magazine, which is out later this month, for further analysis.
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Readers' comments (15)
Dazed and confused | 10-Feb-2010 4:59 pm
Poor, poor lawyers. How are they going to manage on a salary of only £35,000?!! It makes me laugh. There are teachers and nurses out there on much lower salaries than that.
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Charles Thorpe | 10-Feb-2010 5:53 pm
Yes, but one can tell you this, to become a lawyer you must study a lot harder than you do for a teaching qualification. What do they do... take some random degree mess about for a few years whilst racking up debt and then ... oh i want to study for a pgce! so the government pays some of my loans !? So your answer to that is, lawyers quite rightly deserve the higher pay. FULL STOP !
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Anonymous | 11-Feb-2010 2:36 pm
That is still a lot of cash.
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Gareth Birch | 11-Feb-2010 2:43 pm
I disagree.
My wife is a teacher. Her first degree was in French and Italian, and she worked hard and attained a 2:1. To say she 'took a random degree and messed around for a few years' is offensive. She speaks fluent French and Italian, and has a far greater understanding of both countries history and politics than most other English people!
She then studied for her PGCE , and although she received a grant of £6,000 she still had to take out a further loan to cover living accommodation and travel costs. From what I could see her PGCE was more demanding than I found the LPC, and I can say with no doubt at all that over a working year she puts more hours in than I have to, even when taking into account holidays. I would concede that she is harder working and more ambitious than many teachers, but to say that I automatically deserve a higher salary as a newly qualified solicitor is nonsense.
Both the LPC and the PGCE are what you make them. Both are easy to pass, but neither are easy to excel in from my experience.
I would even suggest that her job, as a teacher in a deprived inner city school is more important (in the great scheme of things) than my job, so perhaps she does deserve a salary to match mine (as a newly qualified solicitor)?
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Glad Charles Thorpe doesn't teach my kids | 11-Feb-2010 3:05 pm
Yes, but one can tell you this, to become an investment banker you must study a lot harder than you do for a legal practice certificate. What do lawyers do... take some random degree mess about for a few years whilst racking up debt and then ... oh i want to study the GDL and LPC! So some city law firm pays some of my loans !? So your answer to that, investment bankers quite rightly deserve the higher pay. STOP CHARLES THORPE WRITING NONSENSE!
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Charlie Charlie Charlie | 12-Feb-2010 1:31 pm
Charlie Thorpe's comments about teachers are so ridiculous and ignorant. The arrogance of some in this profession is astounding. The money must have gone to your head!
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Anonymous | 12-Feb-2010 2:14 pm
It's supply and demand - more people want to be lawyers (perhaps up to 100 applicants per TC place) and similar with investment banking.
In comparison there is only moderate competition to get onto a PGCE course which near on guarantees a job at a school.
Similar with nursing courses.
PGCE, nursing courses, LPC, GDL, etc etc ... all moderately demanding course. Teachers and Nurses are almost certainly more 'socially valuable'; but the reason why lawyers and IB's get paid more is because the supply of applicants far exceeds the number of lawyers/bankers we actually need.
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Anonymous | 12-Feb-2010 4:46 pm
1. To suggest that obtaining a 2:1 in Modern Languages is anywhere near as arduous or demanding as obtaining a high 2:1 LLB or high 2:1 BA / B.Sc PLUS the GDL (the requirements of most city firms for a training contract) is laughable.
To get a TC with a starting salary of £35,000, most candidates will have worked consistently hard from the age of 16 plus carried out extra-curricular activities on top of that. As the last poster points out, due to sheer supply and demand and intense competition it is, objectively, much harder to become a city lawyer.
2. Although teaching and nursing might have more evident "social value" where do you think the money for schools and hospitals comes from?! Like it or not, our economy is now based around the tertiary sector (which largely means the City.) The business investment banks and international law firms generate is HUGE (not to mention the income tax contributions of the employees.) Without this revenue the romantic "social contributions" of teachers and nurses would be even less well paid.
3. To "speak fluent French and Italian, and have a far greater understanding of both countries history and politics than most other English people" is sort of the whole point of doing Modern Languages as a DEGREE. Plenty of people speak foreign languages to A level standard or better but they didn't choose to spend 4 whole years studying them.
PS In my experience UK modern language students' level of languages is actually far less than "fluent" since they spend their Erasmus years getting drunk with other Erasmus students who all want to speak English.
Medical students are the ones who work the hardest, for longest and with relatively poor compensation in return (at least initially)
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Adam Smith | 12-Feb-2010 5:14 pm
Anonymous | 12-Feb-2010 2:14 pm:
"why lawyers and IB's get paid more is because the supply of applicants far exceeds the number of lawyers/bankers we actually need" - not quite grasping the rules of supply and demand there old chap... More likely that there are more 'non-financial 'benefits with teaching and nursing like that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you know you have done something socially rewarding.
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J Caulfield | 15-Feb-2010 11:41 am
Fellows - I might be stating the obvious here, but everyone appears to have forgotten that law firms and banks make a LOT of money. Last time I looked schools didnt. They cab therefore pay to attract the best (of the best) people to help them make even more money. City law firms are, in that respect, more like the Top Gun Academy than our schools are. Which is a shame.
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