Trainees face pay freeze as firms tighten the belt
Trainee solicitors and newly qualified (NQ) lawyers across the City have been hit with pay freezes as law firms attempt to claw back overheads in response to the recession.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer was the first major firm to announce it was reversing its associate salary bands, with newly qualified (NQ) salaries dropping from £66,000 to £59,000. The salary for first and second-year trainees will remain unchanged at £39,000 and £44,000 respectively.
Meanwhile, fellow magic circle firms Allen & Overy (A&O), Clifford Chance and Linklaters, as well as Slaughter and May, have also slammed the brakes on salary hikes.
First and second-year trainees at A&O will be paid £38,000 and £42,200 respectively. NQ rates are still under review. Clifford Chance has frozen pay at current levels until the end of the 2009-10 financial year. In London, first-year trainees progressing to their second year will see pay rise from £37,400 to £42,000. NQs, who currently earn £66,600, will be paid £59,000 from 1 September.
Linklaters has also frozen first and second-year trainee salaries at £37,400 and £43,200 respectively, while NQ salaries have been slashed by 7.6 per cent to £61,500.
Slaughters has kept trainee salaries at its 2008-09 levels - £38,000 and £43,000 respectively.
Those starting at Herbert Smith can expect to be paid £37,500 in their first year and £42,500 in their second, with NQ salaries being reduced from £64,000 to £60,000.
Norton Rose starters will receive £35,700 and £40,200 in their first and second years, and NQ salaries have gone down from £63,500 to £59,000.
Meanwhile, Lovells will be paying first and second-year trainees £37,000 and £42,000, while NQs will be paid £59,000.
Simmons & Simmons starters will be paid £36,000 and £40,000 with its NQ salaries under review.
Readers' comments (7)
20 Regal | 21-May-2009 1:31 pm
The salaries paid were coming to absolutely ridiculous levels. There's virtually no other profession where someone could qualify from the age of twenty four (or lower in a few rare occasions) and earn that sort of money in addition to having already had their LPC fees paid for them.
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Anonymous | 21-May-2009 2:22 pm
The above poster misses the point...or is a teacher ;)
Law firms are not run like companies; partners are not held to account by shareholders. The partners effectively are the shareholders and, as such, are entitled to decide how much trainees and associates get paid.
You also have to remember that a career in the city is easily the most demanding in the country.
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Anonymous | 21-May-2009 2:23 pm
I'm sure the partners are relishing the excuse (credit crunch) to cut back on associate salaries - after all, it increases their profit pool. There is nothing ridiculous about £65,000 on qualification at all - Magic Circle lawyers work very hard and deserve every penny. No use complaining just because other jobs pay less!
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Anonymous | 21-May-2009 5:52 pm
I don't know what the situation is with pay cuts at NQ level for US firms but would be interested if light could be shed on it.
If a NQ at a top 10-15 City firm can now only expect £58-60k, this does make the US firms offering anywhere up to £96k quite a serious proposition.
I decided to go for a UK firm training as the pay disparity for NQs, whilst large, wasn't large enough to tempt me into training in a satellite office. But if some of the major US outfits are still paying their London NQs over £90k, this could be an interesting choice for current applicants.
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Anonymous | 23-May-2009 4:03 pm
They would be silly salaries if they didnt bill trainees out at £200 an hour. Since all firms make huge profits on trainees, it seems fair that trainees are paid a decent wedge.
And once youve paid rent on a decent flat next to work for the long hours and your interest it doesnt leave you with that much cash...
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Ex City Solicitor | 27-May-2009 10:20 am
Amazing that you think that you are worth the stupid salaries that you get paid. For a newly qualified solicitor about that of an MP!
"You have to remember that a career in the city is easily the most demanding in the country" - as an ex city solicitor trust other than staying up all night and getting abused by partners there ain't that much demanding about it.
Your decent wage of £65K is more than three times the national average wage - and you are kids in your early twenties. Amazing that people survive in London on less than that eh? More a comment about the silly house prices in London than you right to earn so much money at such a young age.
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outside commentator | 2-Nov-2010 8:00 pm
Given that the candidates are generally in the top 1 % academically (over half are Oxbridge) and that there are between 80 and 100 applicants for each training place, then yes, the salaries will be higher than for run-of-the-mill graduates. You get what you pay for.
Don't Chelsea, Man Utd and the McLaren and Ferrari F1 teams work on similar principles?
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