London Law’s Senior Associate Problem No One Wants to Talk About
Fresh from Quinn Emanuel joining the fray in London, as we reported last week, the latest 5% across-the-board hike has pushed newly qualified lawyers to £189,000 from 1 July, with the scale running up to £373,000 for the most experienced associates.
That puts QE comfortably ahead of most US rivals in the City and leaves the Magic Circle staring at a £39,000 starting gap.
But the more interesting (and awkward) story is what’s happening one or two rungs higher.
Recruitment specialist Ria Karnik (above) of Major Lindsey & Africa says that as junior pay keeps rising from below, mid-level and senior associates “could easily be troubled by the numbers they are seeing.”
She warns – “No firm wants a resentful middle tier, but they may get one.”
These are the lawyers carrying the heavier management, mentoring and business development loads. They’re now watching the pay differential narrow while the juniors they’re training pocket figures that used to belong to much more senior roles.
Karnik’s prediction is that another NQ jump could accelerate exits from UK firms into US shops offering fatter packages.
Partner Nick Woolf of Woolf&Co casts doubt about whether this pace of associate salary inflation is economically sustainable across the wider market, rather than simply whether Quinn Emanuel can afford it.
Susman Godfrey’s Salary Move
The same fever is visible on the other side of the Atlantic. Susman Godfrey has just nudged past Milbank’s recent raises, taking associate pay as high as $450,000, with Quinn Emanuel and several others matching or following the new US scales.
London’s skirmishes are part of the same transatlantic contest for talent, only in London the compression is hitting the middle and senior layers harder because the Magic Circle base remains anchored at £150,000 for NQs while US firms keep stretching the top end.
For UK firms, the challenge is no longer just whether they can match the juniors. It’s whether they can keep the people actually running the matters engaged when the year-below cohort is suddenly earning numbers that used to signal “you’ve made it.”
The pay wars are delivering handsome returns for the newest recruits. For everyone else, the arithmetic is getting complicated.
