It ain’t MoneyLaw, but boosts not to be sniffed at
National law firm Nabarro has increased pay for its London trainees and junior solicitors.
The first year trainee rate goes up by £1,000 to £38,000, while the second year salary rises by £2,000 to £42,000. At associate level, newly qualifieds’ (NQ) pay is boosted from £61k to £62k, and remuneration for solicitors with one year postqualified experience (PQE) grows £2k to hit £68,500. There are a series of modest increases for associates through to 5PQE, who now will earn £89,000.
Associates at the firm also receive performance-related bonuses of an amount not disclosed individually but which has totalled over £1 million this year.
Nabarro’s pay rises — which have also been applied in its regional offices — may not be spectacular but they are an encouraging sign that corporate law firm confidence hasn’t been too hard hit by Brexit.
So far, just one firm, Berwin Leighton Paisner, has put salary rises on ice due to the vote to leave the EU, with others including Herbert Smith Freehills and King & Wood Mallesons having pushed ahead with substantial raises. Check out the Legal Cheek Firms Most List for all the latest pay comparisons.
The hope is that law firms will mitigate any reduction in deal flow that comes from the activation of Article 50 with a sharp increase in Brexit-related regulatory advisory work.
In an interesting corporate law pay footnote, readers may be interested to know that the dollar-tied MoneyLaw figure being paid by some US firms to their London NQs currently stands at a cool £137,000. Before the pound plunged in the wake of the referendum result, it stood at a mere £124,000.