Sonia Hickey, LawFuel contributing editor
Key Takeaway
On 15 June 2026, Law.com International’s Paul Hodkinson recast London’s Magic Circle for 2026. The new five are Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Paul Weiss, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Every one is American. The original five (Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Linklaters, A&O Shearman and Slaughter and May) still pay £150,000 to newly qualified solicitors while the new five pay between £170,000 and £189,000. Kirkland alone returned $9.25 million per equity partner in 2024. Paul Weiss has hired more than 20 partners from London rivals in 24 months. The label changed on 15 June. The work and the money changed years ago.
Anyone tracking the London legal market has watched this coming for three years. On 15 June 2026, Paul Hodkinson at Law.com International (left) was the first to put it on the record. London’s Magic Circle, he wrote, now consists of Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Paul Weiss, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
None of the firms in the original 1990s Magic Circle made the list.
“Any ambitious graduate or established rainmaker deciding where to build a career would struggle to ignore this new group,” Hodkinson wrote. “They sit at the centre of some of the most lucrative and strategically important work in the London market.”
The label may be the same, but the new additions to the group have dramatically moved the needle on what the Magic Circle means.
Who is in London’s new Magic Circle in 2026?
Kirkland & Ellis sits at the top of the list and at the top of global legal economics, with $9.25 million in profit per equity partner in 2024 and revenue past $8.8 billion. Latham & Watkins has the largest US firm presence in the City and runs the heaviest dealflow of any single London office on the new list.
Paul Weiss is the firm everyone else has been losing partners to. Since summer 2024 it has hired more than 20 partners from rivals, eleven of them from Kirkland, four from Linklaters and three from Clifford Chance, with recruiter Scott Gibson at Edwards Gibson describing the result as “a new apex predator in town”.
Simpson Thacher remains the City’s preferred private equity counsel for the largest sponsors. Quinn Emanuel, the only litigation-only firm on the list, raised London newly qualified pay to £189,000 on 4 June 2026 and now pays above the rest of the City at every PQE level.
What happened to Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Linklaters, A&O Shearman and Slaughter and May?
They are still excellent firms running large global platforms, no question. But they are also, on the numbers, comprehensively outpaced on partner profitability, London newly qualified pay and lateral retention is the area of vulnerability with the original five all pay £150,000 NQ.
The new five pay between £170,000 and £189,000, singificantly outpacing the ‘old’ Magic Circle.
A decade ago, the gap was under £10,000. The Magic Circle response so far has been to stretch lockstep and, in Freshfields’ case, introduce a salaried partner tier earlier this year. Neither move closes the gap Hodkinson named.
What does this mean for Laterals, Trainees and Clients in 2026?
For senior associates at the original five, the question is no longer whether to talk to the recruiter, but which of the new five fits the practice, given that the cash difference at four to seven PQE now runs into six figures.
For trainees the opportunities and perception about the Magic Circle has shifted from choosing prestige to choosing the platform plus pay, and there is little doubt that the platform numbers favour the Americans. But the transition has also created reall concerns for some mid-level or higher level associates.
For corporate clients running the largest mandates, the work is already flowing where the partners with the books have gone, which is exactly the rotation Hodkinson described. The BigLaw Salary Scale tracks the headline figures; the Power Firms List tracks the partners. The LawFuel newsletter tracks the next move.
The Magic Circle did not lose the name on 15 June. The name lost the firms.
