New lawyers start on £150,000 as Freshfields boosts pay

Newly qualified lawyers at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer will now be paid £150,000 a year after the magic circle law firm boosted salaries.

Lawyers who have finished their exams at the Anglo-German legal giant will be paid the new starting salaries at the end of their two-year training contract, an uplift of 20pc from the £125,000 paid in 2023.

Trainees starting at the firm will see their pay packets jump from £50,000 to £56,000, whereas those who have been there for a year will now be paid £61,000.

The increased salary puts them above most other magic circle firms including Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Linklaters, and Slaughter and May, who paid newly qualified lawyers £125,000 last year.

It is the latest in a pay war between London firms and US rivals.

American firm Gibson Dunn pays its lawyers £180,000 a year, more than five times the average salary.

Last year, newly qualified lawyers could expect to make £125,000 at magic circle firms, more than three times the average UK salary of approximately £34,900, according to government data.

New trainees could expect to make approximately £50,000 in top firms on average, rising to £55,000 after a year.

But newly qualified lawyers are expected to clock in for more than 12-hour days on average at many firms.

Four of the top firms had an average day of more than 12 hours, and at 21 lawyers worked more than 11 hours a day, a survey of 2,000 young lawyers by Legal Cheek, a legal news website, found.

Mark Sansom, London managing partner, said: “This move follows a year of strong growth for the London business, thanks to the dedication of all our people.

“It also reflects our confidence in the firm’s continued market leadership across all our London practices, further boosted by the success of the material investments in the US and other markets.”

It comes after other firms asked their associates to switch to shorter working hours and reduced pay in a cost-saving effort. Earlier this year, Fladgate, a City law firm, asked 30 of its lawyers in its real estate team to consider working four-day weeks.

Large firm Slaughter and May announced last year that it would permanently allow its lawyers to work reduced hours for less pay, allowing associates to cut back by up to 20pc.

These lawyers continue to work five days per week as usual, but will accrue non-working days in addition to their holiday entitlement which they can take in up to two pre-agreed blocks during the year. But it is understood that this initiative is designed to reduce burnout, rather than cut costs.

Burnout is a problem for city law firms, as top lawyers struggle to keep up with long hours and an “always on” culture.

In March, Dominic Griffiths, the London head of law firm Mayer Brown, said that he had suffered in silence following a mental health crisis.

He said: “I didn’t tell anyone at work and just about managed to cope. It is no secret that law is a high pressure and high stakes sector. You cannot get away from that fact, especially when you are working with large global clients.”