Trainee barristers offered pay of £100,000 in battle for talent

TRAINEE barristers are being offered annual pay of £100,000 as the battle to attract legal talent heats up.

The grants, offered to those in their first year of training, are 10pc higher than the average salary of a qualified barrister.

Gray’s Inn Tax Chambers is offering pupil barristers £100,000 a year, up 43pc from £70,000. The pay rise makes the tax chamber’s pupillage the highestpaying of any UK chambers, according to law website Legal Cheek.

The annual grant is higher than the average salary for a barrister, which is £89,200 according to jobs website Jobted, although this is depressed by low pay for those practising criminal law. The pay also outstripped the highestpaying salary for a trainee lawyer at a leading law firm, which is £60,000, Legal Cheek found. American firms David Polk & Wardwell and Weil Gotshal & Manges both offer trainees £60,000 a year.

Once qualified, lawyers can expect to make much more. Chambers and legal firms hiring young lawyers have engaged in a wave of pay rises to poach talent, particularly from US firms. The top five companies for junior lawyer pay in London are all headquartered in the US. Akin Gump pays the most and has increased starting salaries for newly qualified solicitors 9pc to £179,000.

To compete with their US rivals, “magic circle” law firms have been boosting graduate salaries, with Clifford Chance now offering newly qualified solicitors a starting salary of £125,000, up from £107,500.

While UK firms may not pay junior solicitors the most, their hours are slightly less gruelling. Legal Cheek found that the average solicitor at US firm Kirkland & Ellis starts work at 9.14am and finishes at around 11.28pm – more than two hours later than trainees working at most magic circle firms.

Laurent Sykes QC from Gray’s Inn Tax Chambers told the website Targetjobs: “While the complexity may seem daunting, people studying tax soon find themselves interested in the subject.” He added that the regularity and complexity of cases meant “the route to silk may be quicker than in other areas”.