Boomtime for partners as pay balloons by up to 30%

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_{With £3.1m, this year his princess was getting real lava chickens.}

VAT on public school fees and mortgage renewals shouldn’t be a problem for equity partners this year, as UK firms announce bumper pay for their top-of-the-tree solicitors.

Macfarlanes equity partners are currently sitting atop cash mountains after a record-breaking year for the City firm. PEP has risen 8% to a eye-popping £3.1m, after profits for 2024/25 rose almost 9% to £206.5m.

Sebastian Prichard Jones, Macfarlanes' Senior Partner, said the firm’s transactional practices “performed strongly despite a slightly muted market”.

Hinting at the panic among UHNWIs over Reeves’ revenue-raising targets, he said that Kier Starmer’s election “underpinned a standout performance from our private client and tax practices”.

The Magic Circle has also seen jumps. Linklaters equity partners drew down an average of £2.2m, up a hefty 15% on the previous financial year.

Clifford Chance equity partners are on £90k less after a smaller rise of 4% – still, mere peanuts in the context of the £2.11m in their paypackets.

Charles Adams, CC’s Global Managing Partner said they were “record results” and that “All regions and practice areas contributed to our strong performance amid macroeconomic headwinds".

Ashurst has also delighted its equity partners, and of course everyone else in the firm who are happy to see them rewarded, with PEP rising 8% to £1.39m.

In the last pre-Kramer year of Herbert Smith Freehills, the firm attained its highest revenue, profit and PEP - which rose 8.6% to £1.428m.

Justin D’Agostino, HSFK's Global CEO, said, "This is our best-ever financial performance, and marks 12 consecutive years of revenue growth – a very fitting final set of results for Herbert Smith Freehills."

A&O Shearman is yet to disclose its financial results, where last year PEP at the newly-merged firm soared by almost 19% to £2.2m. ROF has heard some worried rumblings about Freshfields - but surely it won’t be left out of the money fountain?

Some firms have seen absolutely massive increases in PEP, with equity partners shooting up to the seven figure, in-law-silencing threshold.

Fladgate’s PEP rose 20% to £1m, while PEP at Shoosmiths and Stephenson Harwood has also rocketed up to £1m by a phenomenal 30% and 29% respectively.

Shoosmiths is spreading the good cheer - it said 1,300 eligible employees will receive a 5% salary bonus next month in recognition of their contribution "to the firm’s continued momentum".

David Jackson, CEO of Shoosmiths, said, “I’m so proud that the hard work and dedication of our people has translated into fantastic outcomes for our clients and an amazing financial performance for our firm".

Is enough wonga filtering down to keep the troops happy at your firm, or have the partners kept too much of that lovely extra luca to themselves? You’ll find out when RollOnFriday’s Best Law Firms to Work At 2025 launches in the autumn, but in the meantime, write in or sound off below.

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Comments

What is happening at Shoosmiths?

And yet associate salaries and bonuses will continue to get squeezed. Plus ca change…

A&O’s PEP is inflated because it includes revenue generated by the 40-odd partners who departed over the last 12 months (and divide it by the reduced number of partners). One can expect their PEP to go down drastically next FY, despite management’s effort to cut bonus payable to hardworking fee earners.

Wow, that working from home/flexible working freak out by the "print my emails so I can read and dictate an answer" crowd really was over nothing then

Great. Despite this being my third year in a row with no pay rise as a glass ceiling LD.

what?

How is Macfarlanes so much more profitable than the MC firms?

If you look into Shoosmiths PEP you'll find that it's risen not because of a client-first strategy but because the firm has closed offices, divested from sections of the business, and let go of partners and staff. That's it. It's aggressive cost-cutting masquerading as growth.

PEP is crap, the real story is in the details which the legal press is always too lazy and generally unable to penetrate i.e. the salaried partner legions, then the majority of the equity partners earning under, and many far,far, far, far under, the PEP.

Par example, partners are incentivised to retire after 20 years at MC firms. On retirement after 20 years: Eligible for a significant lump sum + The lump sum tapers down with each additional year stayed beyond 20. Thus firms actively manage PEP optics: Tapers payouts to get senior partners out. Encourages tight equity partnership numbers to boost PEP per head further. It's further manipulated by equity gatekeeping, de-equitisation and short-termism in profit distribution. My balls are itchy.

Is anyone surprised? At OC salary raises are kept with inflation (so a paltry 3.5% or so), not a pence more. Meanwhile the firm is trumpeting how it had another strong year of growth.

Bonuses are shambolic and completely black-box discretionary. Yet to meet a colleague in my team who got more than 5% if they were lucky and brown nosed hard.

At least I only have to bill 1,350 a year and so can coast along, do little and goon away to pron at the gents on most days. Pretty good gig all in all tbh

@10:17 why don't you leave? Someone will make you a partner, as an experienced LD, right?

The PEP figures are totally meaningless in non-lockstep City firms (ie. most of them) because bottom of the equity can be in the 300s and top can be 2-4m, with bonuses then heavily concentrated at the upper end.

I don't really get it. Economy: flat. Inflation: high for years. Businesses: salaries frozen/ minimal increases for years. Lawyers' fees: up. Partner profits: up.

How are clients affording it?

Genuine if extremely dumb question: How are these partners paid? Is it a modest base salary with an end-of-year bonus to make up the overall pay package? Is it all in one big lump at the end dependent on firm profits? Help a confused bazza.

@13:07 - am in a niche area. Have reached out to others. No partner roles and it makes more sense for them to get 2-4 PQEs in to dangle carrot than never gets ate until they quit when they turn into the same glass ceiling position as I'm in.

@13:57: it's usually a pre-determined monthly amount that will be significantly less than the actual profit share value, and then that is topped up later with the remaining profit share on distribution dates which occur throughout the year. The frequency of distribution dates will vary across firms.

Firms will make a deduction from the amount paid out and keep it on account to discharge partner tax liabilities.

In the first couple of years of partnership, you don't actually see much of this extra cash as it takes time to work through the system. However, after about three years, all the money starts to come. Glorious.

In my restless thoughts I remember the world of private equity partners where pay balloons by up to 30 percent, and yet something feels hollow. You promised a fair reward, but you never delivered equity that feels real… Well, I’m here now, perched atop the rungs of ladder houses, waiting still.

I know you didn’t intend for me to see the climb of partner compensation like shelves in a laddered home—each pay rung ascending like a wooden stair, each promotion a platform carved into some lofty ceiling.

Thank you for noting the growth in partner pay—it's like building a ladder house room by room, each bonus a nail, each year a plank. But I’m afraid the structure wobbles. You’ve offered the joint space, but could you give the scaffolding some care?

You’ve rewarded them so generously, yet offered no view out from those ladder-house windows. It’s warm and bright inside, but there’s nothing to look through. That’s why I want you to remember the holes beneath the floorboards, the shaky banisters, the airflow through unseen gaps—rooms that might collapse if the reports vanish.

Do what’s best for partners, RollOnFriday. For your sake—and theirs. Let them climb in peace, let them rest on each paid rung before ascending to the next. Let them know each ladder-house step is solid, not rattling.

You made them happy today. But tomorrow—promise me they'll not fall. Strengthen the ladder houses, anchor every pay boost with structure and visibility.

“At least I only have to bill 1,350 a year and so can coast along, do little and goon away to pron at the gents on most days. Pretty good gig all in all tbh”.

So weird you didn’t get a bonus.

PEP or as we call it at Wombles Postoffice Enhanced Pay

Shoos can’t shout about 1m PEP and not increase their salaries to match firms that have this PEP.

Obviously partners should get the most pay rises

They do the most work, add the most value and cause the most damage when they leave

Mo Salah is more important than the kid that runs around a lot

Billable hours are only there to be done if the partners generate them

Billing hours is not difficult and there is no talent in it. It's just sending emails and making up docs. Most don't even answer the phone or put their cameras on during teams calls

Btw if you have been an LD for several years with no run at partnership, you probably aren't good enough so time to move on

Meanwhile at Weightmans, PEP is how much?

@ Anonymous 25 July 25 20:08 The firm blows a lot of hot air. It's not winning new clients, only cutting costs. The COO is a right ****. New partners and LD's coming from more reputable firms have an 'I've made a huge mistake' moment when they realise what a shambles it is !!!