No sooner have we published the news about the London pay raises with Sidley Austin, Paul Hastings and others when junior pay rates have been increased by other major firms in the catchup to match pay increases.
Fried Frank is the latest US law firm to raise salaries for its junior lawyers in an escalating battle for talent. The firm has boosted its pay for newly qualified solicitors from £160,000 to £175,000 — a rise of 9%, according to people familiar with the situation.
White & Case has lifted pay for newly qualified (NQ) lawyers in the firm’s 500-lawyer City office, who have seen their salaries increase to £150k, a 7.1 percent rise on their previous pay of £140k.
Meantime salaries for lawyers with one year of post-qualified experience (PQE) have increased by 7.5 percent, from £147.5k to £158.5k, and for 2 PQE lawyers by 6.9 percent, from £160k to £171k.
Pay for the firm’s 3+ PQE lawyers is discretionary, with White & Case saying it expected their salaries to be as competitive as those for its more junior lawyers.
The raises, which came into effect on 1 January, extend to the firm’s roughly 90 London trainees, with pay for first years rising from £52k to £56k and for second years from £57k to £61k.
White & Case’s new rate of £150k for NQs sees the firm extend its lead over the UK Magic Circle firms, which have currently settled on a rate of £125k, although it remains some way behind many US rivals, the majority of which have smaller operations in the UK.
As we have reported, Paul Hastings, Sidley Austin and Ropes & Gray confirmed last week they had raised pay for their London NQs to £173k, £166.5k and £165k respectively amid an ongoing junior salary war happening on both sides of the Atlantic.
At the start of this month Davis Polk and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton also hiked NQ pay by 3% to £170k and £164.5k respectively, while in December Weil Gotshal & Manges lifted pay from £165k to £170k.
