Biglaw

Magic Circle Firms Continue To Spread The Wealth With Raises

Abracadabra! Associates' paychecks have magically grown larger!

By  
on

Magic Circle firms with U.S. offices raised associate salaries more than one month ago, leaving associates across the pond wondering when they’d see more money magically appear in their bank accounts. That day has finally come for associates working in London — well, some of them.

Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, and Freshfields have all confirmed raises of varying amounts for their trainees and newly qualified lawyers (NQs). Thanks to Legal Week, we’ve got that information:

Allen & Overy

The firm’s NQ rate has risen by 2.5% to £83,000, up from £81,000, with first and second year trainee rates climbing by just over 2%.

First year trainee pay rises from £44,000 to £45,000, with second year pay increasing from £49,000 to £50,000. The firm will not confirm salaries for more senior lawyers or bonus rates.

Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance last week announced that maximum pay for its NQs, including salary and the highest performance-related bonus available, has risen to £91,000 up by more than 4% from £87,300 last year.

The firm has also raised trainee pay for both years by 4%, with first-year salaries up from £44,800 to £46,600 and second-year pay hiked from £50,500 to reach £52,500.

Freshfields

Sponsored

Freshfields has held NQ pay at £85,000 but increased first-year trainee pay to £45,000, a 5% increase on last year’s salary of £43,000. Second year trainees will take home £51,000, up more than 6% from £48,000.

Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of important salary updates, so when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Raises Salaries”). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.

And if you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Bonus Alerts (which is the alert list we’ll also use for salary announcements), please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the bonus alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each bonus announcement that we publish. Thanks for all of your help!

Allen & Overy raises London salaries lifting NQ rate to £83k [Legal Week]

Sponsored

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Bonus Time

Enter your email address to sign up for ATL's Bonus & Salary Increase Alerts.

Topics

, , , , , , ,