Bosses person criticised rival elite firms for giving their inferior lawyers 'insane' wage rises, with immoderate graduates connected salaries starting t £150,000-a-year.
Pay for the astir inferior ranks astatine immoderate UK 'magic circle' ineligible firms has jumped 50 per cent implicit the past 5 years.
Leading ineligible firms including Linklaters, Clifford Chance, A&O Shearman and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer person each boosted salaries for graduates by 20 per cent this period to £150,000 per annum.
Competition with US firms with London bases has grown fierce, with companies crossed the pond present paying £180,000 to their recently qualified lawyers (NQs).
One brag for a planetary instrumentality steadfast called the increases 'insane', adding that the wage boosts reduced firms' borderline for mistake erstwhile recruiting recently qualified graduates.
The apical ineligible firms are expanding salaries for recently qualified lawyers to 'insane' levels, bosses person said
Top US companies' salaries for inferior lawyers start astatine $225,000 oregon £176,000 per annum successful London, successful enactment with their counterparts successful the US.
The stark wage rises are raising concerns astir imaginable higher anticipation and workload of caller employees.
A spouse of 1 steadfast that had raised salaries for NQs said the determination was designed to beryllium 'proactive' to retaining talent, the FT reported.
Solicitors acquisition a compulsory two-year enactment placement aft graduating from instrumentality school.
Trainees astatine the UK's apical ineligible firms tin past expect a wage of up to £61,000.
Further unit is heaped connected UK firms by the information that immoderate US organisations bash not connection grooming contracts successful London.
The UK's 'magic circle' firms person accrued wage for graduates by arsenic overmuch arsenic 50 per cent successful 5 years, portion competing for endowment with US companies based successful the City
Richard Price, ineligible and firm affairs manager for mining steadfast Anglo American, expressed concerns that the rises would adversely interaction enactment culture.
He said the wage boosts would mean NQs would person to enactment 'extraordinarily hard', perchance impacting some their idiosyncratic lives and modular of work.
Despite adding that the determination didn't 'bother maine personally', Mr Price said that the exemplary wasn't sustainable for lawyers' welfare.
One elite UK institution that has truthful acold declined to uplift its salaries is Slaughter and May. It said it was 'closely monitoring' its rivals and 'considering our position'.
Other elite steadfast partners shared concerns that the progressively competitory situation could exclude graduates from little privileged backgrounds and whitethorn marque it harder to determination underperformers on.
English (US) ·