Berwin Leighton Paisner has frozen pay for UK staff, blaming market uncertainty created by the Brexit vote.

RollOnFriday can reveal that BLP told its UK staff this week that the vote to leave the European Union has resulted in increased financial insecurity, as a result of which it has cancelled pay rises planned for this month. BLP Managing partner Lisa Mayhew emailed staff to break the news that "after much thought and consideration", the firm has decided that the "responsible and prudent thing to do" is to defer salary reviews for four months. She blamed the "political and financial uncertainty" following the referendum result.

Here's the full email, which you will probably receive from your own Managing Partner some time in the next couple of weeks if your firm didn't complete its salary reviews before 23 June:


Expect others to follow suit. As revealed by a RollOnFriday straw poll, law firm leaders overwhelmingly expected a vote for Remain, and predicted a drop-off in work in the event of a Brexit victory.

Managing Partners before the vote:

After:

However, staff at firms which increased pay before Britain stood up to faceless eurocrats/signed its own death warrant may be no better off in the long term. If work does diminish, increased pressure on payrolls may lead to back-pedalling on raises and redundancies. Meanwhile, staff at those firms who are using Brexit to justify freezes will be keeping a beady eye on the financials to check that times really are as tough as the partners tightening the purse strings have predicted.

A spokesman for BLP confirmed the four month deferral, telling RollOnFriday that employees' bonuses for the prior financial year "will be paid", and that "successfully meeting and anticipating our clients' needs at this time remains the critical focus for BLP".