There is good news for those who are looking to become Lawyers, for the first time in history, newly qualified lawyers in their 20’s who have completed their training have broken the £100,000 salary barrier. The US Company Bingham McCutchen are now offering their newly qualified lawyers exactly £100,000, whilst the average pay for workers aged 22 to 29 is just under £21,000.
Bingham stated they want to recruit top talent and therefore they have set their pay at a competitive rate to secure the best. Whilst some rival firms argue that salary is not the most influential factor for many candidates, it is the quality of training within a firm.
A survey published by Lawyer 2B magazine today, shows that other firms increasing their salary’s for newly trained lawyers are Lathan & Watkins with a salary of £96,000, Debevoise and Plimpton at £94,250 and Skadden Arps at £94,000. This is more than junior government ministers and most London secondary school head teachers.
In the UK newly qualified solicitors are offered around £60,000, however many US firms based in London try to compete against UK firms by offering a higher salary for newly trained Lawyers. Binghams office in London has a team of around 40 lawyers with profit per partner averaging about $1.8million (£1.15 million).
Source: Evening Standard, Monday 15 February 2010