Here's a follow-up to last week's post about associate salaries in London. It sounded some pessimistic notes, but maybe the pessimism was unwarranted. From Legal Week:

Shearman & Sterling has announced an increase of 7 percent in its London associate salaries, putting the firm's rates well ahead of those at top U.K. firms. The rises mean a newly qualified solicitor based at the firm's London office will get paid 80,000 pounds ($157,976), up from a figure of 75,000 pounds last year. Senior associates will receive salary increases on a discretionary basis, with the base salary level moving up to 170,000 pounds ($335,699) a year.

Trainee solicitors will also get a bump-up from the review, with first-years now pocketing 39,000 pounds ($77,013) -- up from 36,500 pounds -- and second-years in line for 41,500 pounds ($81,950). The increases will make them among the highest-earning trainees in London.

Remember, however, that these figures are for U.K.-qualified lawyers. As one commenter noted, U.S. lawyers working in London, whether for U.S. firms or Magic Circle firms, generally do better. For more discussion, see here.

Linklaters has followed suit:

In response to Shearman's move, Linklaters announced raises of nearly 4 percent for junior lawyers, in what will be seen as a confident move from the U.K. giant. A newly-qualified solicitor (NQ) at the Magic Circle law firm is now set to earn 66,600 pounds ($131,500), up from 64,000 pounds ($126,300) in 2007.

Finally, in other U.K. news, the London office of O'Melveny & Myers is in "disarray" and "turmoil," according to The Lawyer (via the ABA Journal). That publication reports that "underinvestment by the firm's Los Angeles (LA) hub [has] prompted the exit of a fifth of its partners and a generation of senior associates." We dropped OMM a line to see if they had any comment, but they didn't get back to us.

Update: More here from Legal Week, which reports that O'Melveny is "is in talks to bring its remuneration structure for London partners into line with the rest of the firm."

Shearman leads London associate salary hike, Linklaters follows [Legal Week]
O'Melveny in disarray as UK dream goes sour [TheLawyer.com]
O’Melveny’s London Office is ‘In Turmoil,’ Legal Publication Says [ABA Journal]

Earlier: London to... £75K Be Happy You Have A Job!

Starting salaries for new associates in the London offices of U.S.-based firms can be quite generous. They often exceed the New York going rate of $160,000, approaching $200,000 at top shops. See here (noting that Weil and Cleary pay newly-qualified lawyers the equivalent of $180K, and Latham pays NQs the equivalent of $190K, in London). [FN1]

But top U.K. firms, known collectively as the "Magic Circle," aren't quite as generous to their London associates. From the ABA Journal:

[W]hile some magic circle firms may up the ante at least a little this year, some partners are complaining that junior lawyers already are overpaid.... Says an unnamed Clifford Chance partner: “People should be grateful for having jobs in the current market. I could easily see the rises not happening now and being deferred until later in the year.”

Currently, starting lawyers at leading London firms reportedly make between 63,500 pounds and 65,000 pounds. That translates to a range of about $125,000 to $128,000 in U.S. dollars.

Additional detail, from Legal Week:

Partners with City giants including Linklaters and Clifford Chance (CC) - normally early movers - told Legal Week they are not expecting to see significant increases this year, as they feel the impact of the credit crunch.

Linklaters, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Allen & Overy (A&O) are all in the process of reviewing their salary bands, with partners conceding substantial rises are unlikely. Increases at the junior end are thought to be particularly unlikely.

Insofar as the market for legal services is becoming increasingly global -- London has been gaining on New York as a global financial capital, and competing with it for talent -- pay stasis in London is bad news for those seeking pay raises in New York.

NY to 190? As the Brits like to say, "Not bloody likely."

[FN1] These figures are generated by converting pounds to dollars. But yes, we know that London is even more insanely expensive than New York.

Firms to hold off on major pay hikes after crunch [Legal Week]
London Partners to Associates: At $125K, We’re Paying You Too Much [ABA Journal]

Still no bonus announcement from Mayer Brown. But check out this intriguing email, sent out in the last hour:

From: D'Esposito, Jr., Julian C.
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2007 12:41 PM
To: FW-Assocs; FW-Cnsl
Cc: Holzhauer, James D.; Geller, Kenneth S.; Maher, Paul; Favoriti, Gail A.; Pepper, Margery; Madden, Emilie S.; Dabrowski, Heidi M.; Reichert, Kathleen S.; Harris, Robert; Staiano, David; Couleur, Nancy Jo; Belic, Indira; Burdett, Shannon T.; Burkes, Eugenia; Corby, Candice; Harris, Russell; Holthaus, John H.; Kennedy, Clinton D.; Kislow, Connie; Ku, Alice; Loessl, Angela-Katrin; Tulic, Vesna; Watson, John; Wells, Stephen R.

Subject: Firmwide Meeting on Friday, December 21

Please plan to attend a Firmwide video presentation by the office of the Chairman on December 21 that will describe an exciting, transformational event for the Firm. The meeting will begin promptly at 8am PST, 10am CST, 11 am EST, 2pm BRST, 4 GMT, 5 CET and 12 am Saturday HKST. The Director of Administration will inform you of the location of the meeting in your office. If you are out of the office, there will be a limited number of dial-in lines, the number for which can be obtained from the DoA. You should receive an Outlook calendar notice of this meeting later today.

____________________________________________
Julian C. D'Esposito
Mayer Brown LLP
71 S. Wacker
Chicago, IL 60606

What could this "exciting, transformational event" be? We assume it's not the recent indictment of partner Joseph Collins, since that's already public.

Maybe a merger is in the works? It wouldn't be the first in the firm's history. The firm's former name, Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw, reflected the merger of U.S.-based Mayer, Brown & Platt with U.K.-based Rowe & Maw.

Update: One tipster speculates:

I have no idea, but it is of course intriguing. Maybe we're going public. (That would apply only to the English LLP of course. I think that it may be possible in the future but hadn't seen any change in the law that would allow it now.)

So maybe it's a merger. Or possibly the "exciting" change is that they are not going to give bonuses any more.

That would be "exciting" news -- to rival firms, looking to raid the ranks of Mayer Brown lawyers.

Further Update: We've learned that tonight is the holiday party for the New York office. And still no word about bonuses...

Last week, we mentioned in passing the news that the former U.K. Attorney-General, Lord Peter Goldsmith, QC, is joining Debevoise & Plimpton. Lord Goldsmith will head up Debevoise's European litigation practice.

The Times of London reported the news here, and the WSJ Law Blog posted on the move here. But both write-ups omitted the most notable part of Lord Goldsmith's resume (as mentioned by a WSJ commenter):

On 17 February 2007, the Mail on Sunday reported that Goldsmith, who is married, had been having an affair with Kim Hollis, Britain’s first Asian QC.

Good stuff. And more dirty details, after the jump.

Maybe we should feature stories about the full-time associates who mistreat summer associates. For one such story, involving a senior associate in New York who's an a**hole of Ari Gold proportions, see here.

Or maybe we should feature stories about partners who, despite being partners, comport themselves in a manner that would make Aquagirl blush. For one such story -- from a few years ago, and from the other side of the pond, but trust us, it's good -- see here.

We'll tell you that the two naughty female partners were from Shearman & Sterling. But please respect the house rules and don't identify them further. Considering the great nicknames developed for partner #2, including "The Human Stain" and "The Sprinker," it's just not necessary. Thanks.

Stories from the Belly of Biglaw: Curious George [Urbanagora]
Yank skanks [TheLawyer.com]

Lately we've been talking to a lot of 2Ls about the law firm recruiting process. From these conversations, we've learned that (1) a fair number are interested in working abroad, especially in the fabulous (and fabulously expensive) city of London, and (2) many law students treat the Vault law firm rankings as the Gospel.

In light of these two facts, we expect that many of you will be interested to learn that Vault just released its second annual Top 50 UK Law Firms Rankings. You can check them out here (main page) and here (prestige rankings).

Not surprisingly, the so-called "Magic Circle" firms still hold the top five spots on the list. But they have played musical chairs amongst themselves.

Please treat this post as the open thread for U.K. law firms. If you'd like to discuss what it's like to work for one of these shops, this is the place to do it!

The Vault 50 Top UK Law Firms [Vault]

We previously had an open thread on London salaries, when Weil and Cleary went to 180 and Latham went to 190. Now TheLawyer.com reports that Paul Hastings has raised to £90k, or roughly $180k, in its London offices.

So we'll ask again: does this make London more attractive than New York? Will the London raises create any additional upward pressure on salaries in New York? Let us know if this changes anything, in the comments.

Yes, it's true -- we swear! This is not just another wild rumor. You can take this one to the bank!

The Bank of London, that is. From TheLawyer.com, a U.K.-based website:

Weil Gotshal & Manges’ London associates now earn more than their counterparts in New York after a 20 per cent pay hike in London.

The US-headquartered firm is now offering some of the most generous pay packets in the City with newly qualifieds (NQs) now receiving £90,000, representing a 20 per cent jump from £75,000. First-year associates who qualified in September 2006 will receive an average of £95,000.

If you enter the figure of £90,000 into this currency converter, you get the sum of $178,441, based on the current exchange rate. And Weil isn't even the most high-paying firm in the city:

This puts Weil towards the top of the market in terms of US firms in London. Latham & Watkins still offers NQs the most, with £96,000, and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton offers them £92,000.

Latham's salary of £96,000 for new lawyers translates into $190,341. Cleary's £92,000 comes out to $182,411.

So should U.S. associates pack it all in and jump across the pond? Or does London's high cost of living, plus the crappy food -- Gordon Ramsay and good Indian joints notwithstanding -- make the move not worth it?

Feel free to discuss associate compensation in London in the comments. This will constitute the open thread on London and the U.K. that some of you have been asking for. Thanks!

Update: This is kind of random, but click here for Google Maps directions from New York to London. We especially like step #21.

Further Update: A reader notes that if you get recruited by your firm's New York office for a London position, you could do even better. More details after the jump.

Weil Gotshal ups NQ pay to £90k [TheLawyer.com]
Weil Gotshal Newly Qualified Lawyers Earning A Bundle More [LawFuel]
Universal Currency Converter [XE.com]

When we think of British judges, we think of wigs. But now, thanks to our latest Judge of the Day, we may start associating them with Calvin Klein briefs.

From the Daily Record:

A SENIOR judge yesterday showed a court his Calvin Klein pants as he denied twice flashing at a woman on a train.

Lord Justice Richards, 56, held up his trendy black briefs as he began his defence of charges that he opened his trousers to show his penis.

He told David Fisher QC, defending, he would need to use both hands to open his underwear enough to expose himself. He added: "That is the natural way of doing it."

"Whether one could do it with one hand I don't know, it is not something I do. For a man, it is natural to use two hands to assist in removing one's penis."

If that's not a Perry Mason moment, we don't know what is.

Update: As noted by a commenter, Lord Justice Richards got off. In a manner of speaking.

More fun after the jump.

Today's Judge of the Day hails from the other side of the pond. From Reuters:

A British judge admitted on Wednesday he was struggling to cope with basic terms like "Web site" in the trial of three men accused of inciting terrorism via the Internet.

Judge Peter Openshaw broke into the questioning of a witness about a Web forum used by alleged Islamist radicals.

"The trouble is I don't understand the language. I don't really understand what a Web site is," he told a London court during the trial of three men charged under anti-terrorism laws.

These internets can be so confusing...

So is this Judge Openshaw positively ancient? Actually, no:

Prosecutor Mark Ellison briefly set aside his questioning to explain the terms "Web site" and "forum." An exchange followed in which the 59-year-old judge acknowledged: "I haven't quite grasped the concepts."

Jeez, Judge Openshaw -- get with the program. Even Justice John Paul Stevens uses email. And he's getting close to 90!

Judge to prosecutor: So what's a Web site? [Reuters via MSNBC]

It appears that the salary wars have made their way to London. With London salaries rising into the neighborhood of £65,000, and with the current exchange rate over two $/£, the gap between New York and London salaries is narrowing considerably. This from the London Times Online:

City sources said newly-qualified lawyers at A&O would be offered salaries of £65,200 – above its magic circle and other UK rivals.

The latest pay rise pushes Allen & Overy into the territory of US law firms that typically offer between 20 and 40 per cent more than UK firms in an attempt to lure away skilled lawyers.

Chris Hickey, a legal recruiter at Robert Walters, predicted that several large US firms, whose London offices are enjoying a significant boom on the back of strong private equity and mergers and acquisitions markets, would also be forced to revise their salaries upwards.

With, as the article points out, U.S. firms typically paying 20-40% more than UK firms in London, the U.S. firms may soon be paying their associates in London more than their associates in New York. This will in turn likely force the NY salaries even higher. Could we soon hit $200,000 for first year associates?