Lovells, Simmons & Simmons and Nabarro are the latest firms to increase newly-qualified salaries to meet the new City benchmark.
The increases, effective from 1 May, take Lovells' and Simmons' newly-qualified salaries from £55,000 to £63,500 - joining Clifford Chance, Slaughter and May and Norton Rose at that rate. Nabarro has increased its newly-qualifed rate to around £62,500.
It is the second increase in a year for Lovells, which also increased its rate by £2,000 in November. The firm has introduced a qualification bonus of £1,000, to be paid in September, for all trainees who remain at the firm as newly-qualified lawyers. The move follows news that almost a third of Lovells' 32 trainees taken on in March 2005 chose to leave the firm rather than apply for a permanent position at the end of their training contract.
Lovells will also pay a bonus of up to 30% of base salary to all associates. The firm's senior associates have a new bonus structure so that two-thirds of maximum bonus can be discretionary, with the rest hours-based. For more junior lawyers, two-thirds of the bonus is based on hourly targets, while the remaining third is discretionary.
Despite the increases, Nabarro, Simmons and Lovells all lag behind a number of City rivals. Herbert Smith and Linklaters both pay newly-qualifieds £64,000 before bonuses, with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Allen & Overy among the City's top payers on £65,000.
However, UK salaries are still behind the mid-Atlantic rates paid by some US firms in London, with White & Case paying newly-qualifieds £76,000 before bonuses and Shearman & Sterling paying £75,000.
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