First year lawyers trouser A$80K at Freehills Sydney
27 August 2010
It has been reported this week that Freehills has maintained its position as Australia's best paying law firm. Not only is it paying its graduates top dollar but it's also paying the most wedge for first year lawyers.

First years at Freehills Sydney are trousering a GFC-defying $80K, according to the results of Firmspy's salary survey. However the rest of the competition is not too far off the pace, with Mallesons and Blakes salaries stretching to A$78K and A$77 respectively. If these figures are correct, that would represent an average raise of 6% since RollOnFriday's last salary survey - a pretty good result in uncertain times. No mention however of Gilbert & Tobin, which scored the highest points for pay in RollOnFriday Firm of the Year 2010.

Meanwhile, according to the survey, Clayton Utz is languishing at the bottom end of the Sydney scale, with first years struggling by on only A$73K. Although this is exactly the same figure that Firmspy reported that Clutz paid its graduates, so perhaps that should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Some HR managers engaging in subterfuge yesterday

However, as salaries become an increasingly hot topic, dark rumours have been emerging of attempts to manipulate the figures - in particular, Firmspy reckons that an unnamed HR department has been feeding misinformation into the survey in an attempt to skew the results. Hmmmmm. While HR teams are generally tight-lipped about who gets paid what, actual subterfugue by members of the respected HR community would be a new development .

To keep RollOnFriday's definitive Inside Info on Aussie firm salaries up to date, just click here.