UK graduates to be paid £180k starting salary by US law firm

A US law firm has increased starting salaries for its newly qualified lawyers in London to £180,000 as the war for talent intensifies.

New hires at Quinn Emanuel will see their pay rise by £30,000 from June in a recruitment blow to “magic circle” rivals.

The increase will make the Los Angeles-headquartered firm the joint highest paying law practice in the UK, alongside US rival Gibson Dunn.

It is a blow for London’s magic circle, the traditional elite cadre of British law firms.

These five institutions – Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Linklaters and Slaughter & May – have struggled to keep up with deep-pocket US rivals on junior lawyer pay.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer last week raised its pay for new lawyers from £125,000 to £150,000 in an effort to keep up. The other members of the magic circle pay new associates £125,000.

Alex Gerbi, Quinn Emanuel’s London co-managing partner, said the firm was “very pleased” to reward its lawyers “for the contribution they make daily to the success of our practice in London”.

He said: “We are also committed to continuing to attract the very best new talent as we pursue our strategy for further growth.”

Mr Gerbi added: “We believe there is no better home than our firm for the brightest and best disputes lawyers, and this decision aligns our salaries with the opportunities we offer

‘We are also committed to continuing to attract the very best new talent as we pursue further growth’

them.” Quinn Emanuel specialises in representing businesses in corporate disputes and has acted for clients including Google and Fifa.

The firm has bumped up all of its pay scales. From June its best-paid lawyers will be on salaries ranging from £315,000 to £355,000, up from £245,000 to £295,000 currently.

It marks the latest salvo in a war for talent in the City of London. Pay has been rising rapidly in the legal world in recent years amid brisk business. The competition has prompted UK-headquartered firms to introduce new incentives to stop lawyers defecting.

Freshfields has previously handed its private equity lawyers bonuses of £50,000 to stop staff jumping to American rivals.

Meanwhile, Slaughter & May last year said it would allow its lawyers to cut working hours by as much as a fifth to save on costs.

While newly qualified lawyers are richly rewarded, they are expected to work intensely.

Junior staffers at four of the top UK law firms work on average more than 12 hours a day, according to a survey by Legal Cheek.

Law firms are reckoning with growing concerns about the culture of long hours and intense pressure within the industry, following the death of a Vanessa Ford, a senior partner at Pinsent Masons.

She had been suffering from an “acute mental health crisis” according to a coroner’s inquest, which heard she had been working 18-hour days leading up to her death.