Squire Patton Boggs has boosted newly-qualified pay to £95,000 in London as the salary boom continues - despite a warning from listed firm DWF’s chief executive that ever-increasing pay is ‘only a sticking plaster’.

Squire Patton Boggs today announced an 11% increase in NQ pay from £85,000 in the capital, matching DLA Piper which confirmed its own increase to £95,000 last week, while salaries for staff in Squire Patton Boggs’ regional offices have gone up by 10% to £55,000.

European managing partner Jonathan Jones said: ‘In a highly competitive market for talent, we remain committed to providing competitive pay and distinguishing ourselves with a culture that places the highest value on people’s development and well-being.’

Meanwhile, City firm Eversheds Sutherland also announced that its NQ salaries would rise to £95,000 in London, 15.8% up from £82,000 last year; in the rest of the UK salaries will rise 24% to £62,000.

The announcements are just the latest salvoes in the ongoing salary war, which has seen US-headquartered firm Goodwin increase NQ pay to £161,500 – the highest in the Square Mile. All five magic circle firms, and a number of leading City firms, currently offer six-figure annual salaries to NQs.

Nigel knowles

Sir Nigel Knowles: 'Offering more and more money to young people is only a sticking plaster’

Source: REX Shutterstock

However, DWF’s chief executive today warned that increased salaries are ‘only a sticking plaster’ and said the legal industry ‘must change its culture’ to continue to attract talent.

‘Offering more and more money to young people is only a sticking plaster,’ Sir Nigel Knowles said in a letter to the Financial Times. ‘It is not a sincere, sustainable or healthy solution for anyone.

‘Failure to find better ways of incentivising people and building a healthier workplace environment means the British legal industry risks losing talent to more enlightened sectors.’

He added that progressive firms which ‘champion diversity and inclusion [and] encourage a modern work-life balance’ are able to create a workplace culture which is ‘much more meaningful than relying on huge, but ultimately one-dimensional, starter salaries and ad hoc payments’.

‘The legal industry must wake up to the realities of modern employees, workplaces and society at large,’ Knowles said.

Similarly, legal recruitment consultancy Edwards Gibson has cautioned that ‘history tells us that law firm salary wars don’t tend to end well for associates, and more importantly for law firm management they have always been a portent of a market correction’.