DLA Piper hands London NQs another £10k

DLA Piper has upped its newly qualified lawyer salary from £130,000 to £140,000 as the London market turns up the heat on early-career recruitment.

London trainee salaries have also been increased by £3,000 - first years will now get £55,000, and second years £60,000.

The firm also raised its regional salaries, increasing NQ pay from £82,000 to £84,000 in its Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield offices.

The hike comes around a year after it boosted its London NQ pay from £110,000 to £130,000 and follows a wave of first-year associate pay rises across the City that began in June. 

In context

The £10,000 increase means DLA’s NQs will be paid the same as those at Norton Rose Fulbright and Ashurst Perkins Coie, leapfrogging over Katten and Reed Smith, which pay £135,000.

Baker McKenzie, HSF Kramer and Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, which raised its NQ salary in late June, sit just ahead of DLA Piper, paying first-year associates £145,000. 

At the start of the month, Milbank was the first mover, announcing a hike for associates, which pushed up the “Cravath scale”, a benchmark pay structure followed by most top US firms.

Milbank associates in the US will now be paid between $235,000 and $455,000 depending on seniority, with the increase understood to also be reflected for London associates.

Some other US firms that adhere to the established pay scale indicated they would follow, including Katten. Quinn Emanuel, which does not follow the scale, then raised its NQ pay to a market-topping £189,000.

Hogan Lovells announced a £5,000 increase from £140,000 to £145,000 ahead of its now-live merger with Cadwalader, and Macfarlanes said last week it was adding £10,000 to its NQ pay packets, matching the Magic Circle at £150,000.

See our City law firm salary table for a side-by-side comparison of where things stand.