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The newly qualified (NQ) solicitors are set to see their salaries double to $100,000 from the £50,000 they earned when they began as trainees at the silver circle firm two years ago. Macfarlanes upped its NQ base rates to six figures at the beginning of this year, competing with other law firms, such as DLA Piper which upped salaries for its most junior lawyers earlier this month.
Following the news, Jat Bains, graduate recruitment partner at Macfarlanes, said, “Our trainees are the future of the firm and we look forward to continuing to support them in their careers at Macfarlanes. We are really happy to have retained all our trainees in this cohort.”
Macfarlanes is typically a strong retention performer, regularly keeping the vast majority of its qualifying trainees.
Nonetheless, with the salaries of legal professionals largely rising across the board, some critics are beginning to question whether young professionals in the sector are being paid too much.
“Offering more and more money to young people is only a sticking plaster,” Sir Nigel Knowles, former global co-chairman of DLA Piper, wrote in a letter to the Financial Times. “It is not a sincere, sustainable or healthy solution for anyone.”
“Failure to find better ways of incentivising people and building a healthier workplace environment means the British legal industry risks losing talent to more enlightened sectors,” Knowles warned.
