Magic circle law firms join competitors in raising NQ salaries to £150,000

Clifford Chance and A&O Shearman become the latest magic circle law firms to increase pay for newly qualified (NQ) solicitors to £150,000, after their counterparts announced similar moves in recent weeks.

A&O Shearman’s NQ pay, effective as of 1 May, has been boosted by 20%, with pay for the newly merged firm’s trainees also up by more than 10% to £56,000 for first years and £61,000 for second years. Clifford Chance has also followed suit, matching its NQ and trainee solicitor salaries to its rivals. The firm’s NQs will also be paid £150,000 as of 1 May and its first and second-year trainee pay has been bolstered by 10% to £56,000 and £61,000, respectively.

This latest move by Clifford Chance and A&O Shearman makes Slaughter and May the only magic circle firm yet to boost NQ salaries. The firm, which reviews salaries biannually, said the next review is set for November.

Although NQ salaries at these magic circle firms is eye-wateringly high, as the firms compete among one another in the war for talent, some US firms in the City (including Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher UK LLP) are paying its junior lawyers as much as £180,000. This is more than the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak earns (around £165,000), new research has found. London offices of 12 law firms, which account for 101 solicitors who qualified in the latest administrative round fall into this bracket.