City giant also reveals 67% autumn retention result
International law firm Mayer Brown has today unveiled modest salary increases for its trainee and junior lawyers.
New associates at the Chicago-headquartered giant will now pocket £71,500, up from £69,000, equating to an increase of almost 4%.
Trainees have also had extra cash chucked their way, with those in their first and second years set to enjoy pay increases of 5% and 4% respectively. Trainees in year one of their training contracts will now take home £42,000, up from £40,000, and those in year two will receive £47,000, up from £45,000.
All pay increases will come into force as of 1 September.
According to Legal Cheek’s Most List, today’s pay boost now puts Mayer Brown’s freshly minted NQs on a par with those at elite magic circle outfit Slaughter and May, Anglo-US law firm Hogan Lovells and City giant Travers Smith.
But Mayer Brown — which offers around 15 training contracts annually — still remains behind a number of key City players in terms of remuneration. Thanks to a plethora of pay boosts over the summer, fresh faced associates at the likes of Clifford Chance, Freshfields and Jones Day are still pocketing a whopping £13,500 more than those at Mayer Brown.
Lawyer pay packets aside, Mayer Brown has also announced an autumn retention figure of 67%.
From a trainee cohort of just nine, six have committed their future to the firm. Three new lawyers will be based in banking and finance, two in litigation and dispute resolution and one in antitrust and competition.
Commenting on today’s result, William Glassey, training principal at Mayer Brown said:
Firstly I would like to congratulate all our trainees on their successful qualification. We are also delighted that six of our trainees will be staying on in permanent positions within our practices. It is not always possible to match our trainees’ first choice with internal demand and I want to wish our three qualifiers who will be pursuing roles outside the firm the very best for the future.
Earlier this year, Mayer Brown posted a perfect spring retention score of 100%, albeit from a much smaller trainee cohort of just four.