Macfarlanes has become the latest City firm to fire a shot in the ‘NQ pay war’ by increasing the salaries of its newly qualified solicitors by £25,000 to £140,000.
The elite outfit joins ‘magic circle’ firms Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters, Clifford Chance and A&O Shearman in boosting NQ pay. All have increased salaries by about 20% to £150,000 in recent weeks. Their US peers with London offices have pushed up NQ pay to as much as £180,000 so far this year.
NQ pay at some firms is now 50% higher than five years ago.
Macfarlanes has offered NQ positions to 27 of 32 trainees in the latest round, a retention rate of 84%. All join on permanent contracts.
Trainee salaries have also increased at Macfarlanes, to £56,000 in year one and £61,000 in year two.
Jat Bains, early legal careers partner at Macfarlanes, said: ‘We are excited to welcome our qualifiers across a range of practice areas and congratulations to this talented cohort. We are proud to invest in our trainees so that their careers can thrive at Macfarlanes.’
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