Norma Harris

The battle for top legal talent in the UK is really heating up, and firms are putting their money where their mouth is—especially when it comes to newly qualified (NQ) lawyers.

CMS, DLA Piper, and Ashurst have all just bumped up their NQ salaries.

CMS has raised its London NQ salary to £120k, up from £110k, which means they’re now on par with Simmons & Simmons and Travers Smith. And it’s not just London: their NQs in Bristol are now getting £76,500 (up from £70k), while those in Manchester, Sheffield, and Liverpool are up to £68k (from £62k), and in Scotland it’s £68k too (from £60k). That’s a pretty sweet bump across the board!

DLA Piper NQs are now looking at £130k, which is a hefty 18 percent year-on-year increase with increases at a lower level in the NQs in the other UK offices.