The Firm of the Year survey, which is open for your contribution over Christmas, has been hoovering up responses from lawyers at Magic Circle firms.

It is early days, but at this stage the elite firms appear to have a lot in common. In particular, lawyers at each are convinced that theirs is the skinflint. "Aside from the NQ salary", said a Linklaters lawyer, "we are now the worst paid firm in the Magic Circle". "Our 4 PQE pay is less than the 3 PQE pay at other Magic Circles" said a Clifford Chance associate. Allen & Overy is the "last in Magic Circle by a mile", according to an A&O junior. Slaughter and May is "still not competitive with the rest of the Magic Circle", said an SandM associate. 

The grass is not much greener at Freshfields. "Okay, so we get told we're top of the Magic Circle", conceded a 2PQE. "But it's still slightly nauseating to see friends at US firms taking home twice as much". On that point, too, lawyers at other MC firms are in agreement. Although an A&O senior associate said that taking issue with pay relative to US firms was "a red herring" and that MC firms "have a fundamental issue with their model". Associates and trainees "work themselves to the ground for what is effectively one reason: boosting partners' profits", he said, when employees would be much happier if partners "each accepted, say, £50k less per year and this in turn allowed A&O to improve resources/work-balance/pay of its employees".

"And so we've decided to pay ourselves...£50k less!"

Work-life balance is a struggle across the board. A Clifford Chance associate said, "all attempts at hobbies have failed. I am resigned to eating 3 meals a day at my desk fuelled by caffeine and adrenaline". A Links lawyer said simply: "average 123 chargeable hours per week for last 3 months". 

A senior associate at Freshfields said, "It is nearly impossible to maintain a transactional practice and have a family". She said the firm "does try hard to implement family friendly policies", but "Individual partners undermine this by promising clients everything under the sun - with ridiculous timescales". 

Slaughter and May doesn't have target hours but, said a junior, it "doesn't need target hours", because associates "will happily achieve annual hours in excess of the most demanding US firms in the London market". A Trowers lawyer said it cheered him right up "when I pass by those poor sods in Slaughter and May as I leave the office on Friday night to go down the pub with my mates". 

There were also positives. Slaughter and May was a "hugely professional and interesting place to work", said an associate, "full of some of the cleverest and most dedicated people you will meet". Also at Slaughters, "the loo butlers" who come round "like every couple of hours". And as we're talking toilets, here's a beautiful capsule review from Linklaters: "Skid marks only stay around for an hour or so usually. People tend to avoid pissing on the floor. Though the abrasive toilet paper has, I’m pretty sure, given me a brief bout of piles". Lovely stuff, and important. Keep it coming.