Slaughter and May Mays pays £ 150,000

Unlock Free

Roula Khalaf, publisher of the FT, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Slaughter and May have said that it will not increase salaries for their younger lawyers this spring, with a sign that a fierce war for legal talent in the city may be cooling for the first time from Covid pandemic.

Slaughers, who advises some of the most valuable companies in the United Kingdom, said he had decided to keep basic salaries for their recently qualified solicitors at £ 150,000 after the first of their associated payments reviews twice year.

The movement occurs as its “magical circle” rivals, which usually review the payment levels at the end of the year, hope to see what they do at one another at a time of greater uncertainty in the market and after steep rises in recent years, depending on the people who know the matter.

A Slaughers’ decision to not increase their salary for his recently qualified lawyers now or in November would mark the first time since the Covid-19 crisis that the firm has not increased the wages of younger lawyers, after a strong escalation in recent years.

The intense competition between the main law firms of the city and the American deeper pocket rivals, combined with healthy volumes of supply, promoted the remuneration for the “ Magic Circle ” lawyers recently described from about £ 100,000 in 2019 to £ 150,000 last year.

But this year Lower writing volumes The result of the Donald Trump United States trade war, along with the highest salary costs after the heavy increases in recent years, can act as refrigeration factors in the War of Payments.

“It seems that there is a sense of law firms waiting for someone to move first,” said Ria Karnik, CEO of the Legal Recruiter Major, Lindsey and Africa. This may be “partly due to the demand that does not require a move on the salaries of NQ … if it occurs (it will be) more” to keep it with the situation of Joneses “.

London’s “Magic Circle” companies, including Linklates and Freshfield, From May 1 last year, to What became a bonana salary for junior lawyers.

The movements were an attempt to compete with North -Americans like Quinn Emanuel in London, who has been falling young lawyers from the best companies in the United Kingdom of the capital and increased his own pay to £ 180,000 by 2024. This year, no upper signature of the city, apart from Slaughers, has revealed its new levels of salary.

Following the great hikes in 2024, Slaughers chose to increase his newly qualified lawyer to £ 150,000 in September, and has increased the NQ pay every year since 2021. between Some most important companies for the rare cut of cutting rates by 2020, in movements triggered by the appearance of pandemic.