In a week of mass redundancies and a potential collapse, there was good news at least for some lawyers: trainees at the London office of Jones Day are to get a pay rise. And there've been salary rises across the board at Linklaters.

Jones Day trainees currently pocket a very healthy £39,000 p.a. for their first seat. This is reviewed every six months, and by their final seat the trainees are taking home a market-leading £50,000. First seat salaries will now rise by a couple of grand to £41,000 p.a., which will be reviewed in July of each year of the training contract.
 

Jones Day trainees. And everyone else.

There's also news just coming in of pay reviews at Links. First seat trainee salaries are up from £37,400 to £39,000. This rises to £45k in the second year (previously £43k). 1, 2 and 3 PQE are up to £69k (previously £68k), £76k (£73k) and £88k (£85k) respectively. It all sounds fantastic, but in reality is simply playing catch up with Freshfields.

Meanwhile salaries have been frozen for all staff at Slaughter and May, save for lawyers with 2PQE who will get an extra £500 to earn £76,500. A&O was marginally more generous in its uplift a couple of weeks ago, but still fails to beat Freshfields' and Linklaters' pay rates.

So the current running is:

Firm	1st seat trainee salary	NQ	1PQE	2PQE	3PQE
Allen & Overy	£38,000	£61,500	£68,500	£74,500	£86,000
Clifford Chance	£38,000	£61,500	£68,500	£75,000	£84,500
Freshfields	£39,000	£61,500	£69,500	£77,000	£88,000
Linklaters	£39,000	£61,500	£69,000	£76,000	£88,000
Slaughter and May	£38,000	£61,500	£69,000	£76,500	£86,000