Ashurst has raised NQ salaries to £140,000, matching Macfarlanes and Hogan Lovells.
Trainee salaries have also increased, with first-year trainees now earning £57,000 and second-years £62,000.
Ashurst has upped its newly qualified (NQ) solicitor salaries by £15,000 to £140,000,
The move - a 12% pay rise - puts the firm level with Macfarlanes and Hogan Lovells and ahead of rivals including Travers Smith (£120,000) and HSF Kramer (£135,000).
The salary review, first reported by Legal Cheek, also includes pay raises for trainees, with first-year trainees now earning £57,000 (up from £52,000) and second-year trainees £62,000 (up from £57,000).
Bigger picture
Ashurst’s new £140,00 mark puts it as the joint best-paying UK-headquartered firm outside the Magic Circle and comes on the heels of pay rises from City rivals Hogan Lovells, DLA Piper and CMS.
No Magic Circle firm has announced new NQ rates so far this year. In May, Slaughters told the Financial Times it would not be raising junior lawyer salaries after last year's pay war that eventually forced all of the Magic Circle up to £150,000.
See our City law firm salary table for where things stand.
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