10% rise
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) has become the latest City outfit to throw extra cash at its junior lawyer talent.
Newly qualified (NQ) lawyers will now receive a salary of £88,000, up 10% from £80,000. The rise is effective from 1 July.
More experienced associates will receive similar uplifts and those who hit certain hours targets will be in line to receive larger bonuses.
Legal Cheek‘s Firms Most List shows the firm’s fresh faced associates now out earn their peers at the likes of Norton Rose Fulbright, Macfarlanes, K&L Gates (all £85k) and Simmons & Simmons (£84k).
The move comes some four months after BCLP restored salaries to £80k, following a decision to cut them by 2.5% last summer in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
BCLP isn’t the only firm splashing the cash. Last week, Ashurst upped NQ base rates to £90,000, a 5% increase from £85,500, while Clifford Chance boosted junior lawyer pay to £100,000, up from a previous salary (and Legal Cheek estimate) of around £93,000. Both sets of NQs are eligible for bonuses on top of their new and improved pay packets.
