Linklaters Make Latest Cuts for NQ Lawyers as Heady Pay Increases Slow Due to Pandemic

Linklaters Make Latest Cuts for NQ Lawyers as Heady Pay Increases Slow Due to Pandemic
Linklaters Make Latest Cuts for NQ Lawyers as Heady Pay Increases Slow Due to Pandemic

The COVID pandemic continues to eat into newly qualified (NQ) solicitors’ pay rates with Linkaters being the latest major law firm to announce further cuts to pay – this time a 10 per cent reduction.

In June Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance both cut NQ rates by 10 per cent as a result of the pandemic.

The A&O decrease reduced rates to £90,000 and showed a reversal of the trend towards a pay war among the major UK magic circle law firms.

Last year, A&O lifted its NQ pay from £83,000 the previous year to £100,000 in a bid to retain young talent in the NQ pay war triggered by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer as at 1 May who had made a large pay increase for NQs who had previously enjoyed pay of £85,000 pay cheque. The firm then lifted that figure by a hefty 18 per cent to pay NQs £100,000 a year as well as entitlement to bonuses.

This increase took Freshfields to the heady levels of the big US law firms like Covington & Burling and Sullivan & Cromwell.

But the days of such healthy increases for the NQs appear to be coming to a close as the pandemic’s effects hit them in the pocket.

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