US Law Firms Lift First-Year Trainee Pay to £70,000 in London

By Marcus Bennett

Four US-headquartered firms now pay London first-year trainees £70,000, according to Legal Cheek's latest Firms Most List salary analysis. Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Milbank and Sullivan & Cromwell sit at the top of the table. The figure arrives before qualification, before newly qualified (NQ) pay, and before any bonus.

It marks a sharp rise from last year's rankings, when Davis Polk shared the top spot and Kirkland & Ellis offered £60,000. Davis Polk now sits in the second tier at £65,000, alongside Fried Frank, Gibson Dunn and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

What does the new pay table show?

American heavyweights dominate the summit, as they do in the NQ salary data. The next rung tells the same story:

• Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton: £62,500
• King & Spalding, Ropes & Gray, White & Case: £62,000 each
• Akin, Debevoise & Plimpton, Jones Day, Morrison Foerster, Orrick, Paul Hastings, Paul Weiss, Sidley Austin, Vinson & Elkins, Weil Gotshal & Manges, Willkie Farr & Gallagher: £60,000 each

A long sentence captures the spread better than any single number: from £70,000 at the top to £28,000 at Express Solicitors, first-year trainee pay across 114 firms spans a gap of £42,000, a differential that shapes recruitment far more than any individual firm's marketing.

How do UK firms compare?

Macfarlanes leads the homegrown contingent at £60,000. Osborne Clarke follows at £57,000, with Morgan Lewis just above at £57,500. The Magic Circle firms cluster at £56,000: A&O Shearman, Clifford Chance, Freshfields and Linklaters all pay that figure, as do Slaughter and May, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, Baker McKenzie, Mayer Brown, Norton Rose Fulbright, Simmons & Simmons and Winston Taylor.

The £55,000 band includes Cooley, DLA Piper, Dechert, Goodwin, Greenberg Traurig, K&L Gates, Katten, Reed Smith and Travers Smith. Dentons and Pinsent Masons pay £54,000, BCLP £53,000, and Mishcon de Reya £52,500.

Where does the pay stop growing?

It does not stop at the first year. Second-year trainee salaries have also hit record highs, with some firms now offering £75,000 — all before qualification. The full second-year and NQ figures sit on the Legal Cheek Firms Most List.

Not every trainee pockets £70,000. Salaries vary considerably across the market, and some figures reflect regional offices rather than London rates. Firms outside the capital pay markedly less: Gateley's Reading and Guildford offices offer £33,500, Thomson Snell & Passmore £32,500, Brabners £31,000, Moore Barlow £30,000 and Express Solicitors £28,000.

The lower bands show the depth of the market:

• £45,000–£47,000: TLT, DWF, Freeths, Hill Dickinson, Kennedys, Womble Bond Dickinson, DAC Beachcroft, Withers
• £44,000: Bates Wells, Irwin Mitchell, Kingsley Napley, Lawrence Stephens, Marriott Harrison, Wedlake Bell
• £36,000–£40,000: Shakespeare Martineau, Stevens & Bolton, Cripps, Leigh Day, Weightmans, Michelmores, Birketts, Ashfords

What should candidates weigh beyond salary?

The analysis carries a caveat worth reading. Higher salaries typically come with longer hours, and Legal Cheek's companion working-hours data covering junior lawyers at 110 top firms offers the other half of the equation. A £70,000 package at a US firm and a £50,000 package at Bird & Bird, CMS, Eversheds Sutherland, Farrer & Co or RPC may impose very different demands.

For practitioners advising law students and career-changers, the practical reading is straightforward. The US firms have reset the ceiling at £70,000, up from £60,000 for Kirkland a year ago, while the Magic Circle has held at £56,000 — a widening gap that continues to pull top candidates toward American outfits in London.