£50k in year one, rising to £55k in year two
Clifford Chance has increased the salaries of its trainee solicitors, Legal Cheek can reveal.
The firm’s year one rookies will now earn a salary of £50,000, a rise of £2,000 from £48,000, while their colleagues in year two will receive £55,000, a boost of £1,000 from £54,000. This equates to uplifts of 4% and 1% respectively.
The pay rise puts the firm’s second year trainees on the same levels of cash as those finding their feet at a host of US heavyweights including Akin Gump, Cleary Gottlieb and Debevoise & Plimpton. As for its magic circle rivals, Linklaters is the only other member of the elite fivesome to provide the same £55k sum.
The Legal Cheek Firms Most List shows that CC is one of the largest trainee recruiters in the City, dishing out up to 95 training contracts each year.
News of the cash injection comes just months after Legal Cheek revealed the firm had increased the salaries of its newly qualified (NQ) solicitors to £100k.
Elsewhere, Womble Bond Dickinson has confirmed a series of pay rises of its own. NQs in London will now earn £68,000, up £3,000 from £65,000, while pay in Newcastle and Plymouth has risen a sizeable 14% to £44,000. NQ pay in Bristol now sits at £50,000, up from a previous rate of £46,000, and £45,000 in both Southampton and Leeds — boosts of £3,000 from £42,000.
Trainees are also cashing in. First year trainees in London will receive £38,000 in year one, rising to £40,000 in year two, while their counterparts in Bristol and Southampton are now on £30,000, rising to £32,000 in year two. Trainees in Newcastle and Leeds start on £26,000 and £27,000, moving to £28,000 and £29,000 in their second year. Rookies in Plymouth earn £28,000 and £30,000.
