Wragge & Co has responded to the ongoing pay war among the UK’s national law firms by unveiling a hefty pay-hike for its newly-qualified lawyers (NQs).
NQs based at Wragges' City arm will now take home £62,000, up from £51,000 last year. The change represents an increase of 21.5% on the previous year's package. Wragges will pay NQs outside London a starting salary of £40,000.
The increases mark part of a wider trend at national firms where NQ salaries are approaching those of more senior lawyers lawyers at the same firm.
Wragges lawyers with one year's post-qualification experience (PQE) will pocket £42,000 in Birmingham and £66,000 in London. After a further year those figures climb by just £500 and £3,000 respectively - leaving lawyers with two years' PQE on £42,500 in Birmingham and £69,000 in the City, depending on individual assessment.
One poster on legalweek.com wrote: “[National firms] have got their headlines in the legal press regarding NQ salaries but they have not provided the same increases to the 1-4 PQE salaries. The whole impetus behind the pay increases was the London firms increasing their salaries across the board. Instead, with clever marketing, all the regional firms have done is increase their headline NQ rate and nothing else.”
The news comes in the week that Pinsent Masons hiked its NQ pay in the City from £53,000 to £63,000, with NQs in its regional offices set to earn £40,000.
Pinsents refused to give details of its salary bands, although it is understood one-year PQE lawyers in the City earned around £57,000 last year, with two-year qualifieds on £62,000 and three-year qualifieds pocketing £69,000. Those bands will have required significant rises to remain ahead of the new NQ rates.
The new pay bands took effect from 1 July and follow the benchmark set by national rival Addleshaw Goddard last month, which hit the symbolic £40,000 mark for junior lawyers outside London for the first time.
DLA Piper responded with a 19% salary increase for NQ lawyers in the City to £63,000. The transatlantic firm lifted regional salaries by just 4% in the regions to £36,500, although junior lawyers in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham will receive an additional pay-rise to at least £39,000 in January.
The latest figures open the door for Eversheds, which is yet to announce its new salary bands, to trump its national rivals with even higher pay rates.
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Are the bumper NQ rises ripping off more senior lawyers? And are City lawyers worth so much more than those in the regions? Have your say with the Legal Week Wiki 2007 pay round special.