The London Legal Pay War Continues
The pay war in The City has largely been lead by the US-based law firms and their financial attractions continue as they are paying associates in US dollars, which is helpful when the UK currency has been in free fall.
And the latest pay rates shown in LawFuel have the top US Big Law firm paying the most as Akin Gump who are paying their newly qualified lawyers £179,000 a year (USD320,000).
Sitting behind Akin Gump in the London law pay stakes are Latham & Watkins and Kirkland & Ellis, both of which come in at £170,000 per annum.
Weil Gotshall has just slipped into fourth place with a recently announced pay lift for their NQL at £165,000 a year (USD311,000).
But tougher times may be coming for the major law firms, although they are clearly reluctant to make any major layoffs given that the last recession caught many Big Law firms short when the recovery came and the recruitment wars began leading to – inevitably – the big money payouts required to attract lawyers in the first place.