But flash New Yorkers still £10k off lead pace set by US rivals in Square Mile
New Yorkers White & Case have put City of London rivals in the shade in this year’s junior lawyer pay round battle — boosting newly-qualified solicitor salaries by a whopping 20% to £90,000.
That demonstration of Yankee muscle takes W&C £18,000 clear of the closest English competitors, Clifford Chance, Hogan Lovells and Slaughter and May.
Inflation rates and the RPI index clearly mean nothing to the Uncle Sam firms over here. In an illustration of just how far ahead in the City pay game the US firms are, White & Case’s rush of generosity takes the firm past only one of its compatriots in the Square Mile.
The firm is now paying greenhorn lawyers £2,000 more than the London office of fellow Manhattanites, Shearman & Sterling. But White & Case is still £5,000 behind the next firm on the Legal Cheek most list, Cleary Gottlieb, which is also headquartered in the Big Apple.
And W&C still trails by £10,000 the top triumvirate of Washington DC-based Akin Gump, and two more New Yorkers, Davis Polk and Sullivan & Cromwell.
White & Case trainees will also benefit from a pay upgrade, but one that is much more modest. First-year trainee pay increases by £1,000 to £44,000.
That keeps the firm ahead of English rivals in remunerating its 30 annual trainees. But it is still a grand behind Shearman & Sterling and £5k off the lead pace set by Davis Polk and Sullivan & Cromwell.
Previously:
Freshfields chucks £500 pay rise at trainees as top partners take home nearly £1.5m [Legal Cheek]