White & Caseload of cash.
White & Case is raising salaries for its newly-qualified solicitors to £175k, and giving significant pay rises to its other junior lawyers as well.
Effective from 1 January 2025, the firm will raise its NQ salary from £150k to £175k, placing it very much towards the top end of the ongoing NQ pay war, where big bucks US firms now shower London NQs with salaries of £170k+.
The move puts clear blue water between the firm, which is headquartered in New York but has a substantial office in London with a headcount exceeding 430, and A&O Shearman, Linklaters, Clifford Chance and Freshfields, all of which recently raised NQ pay to £150k, and Baker McKenzie (£140,000).
And it opens a gulf between W&C and the likes of Norton Rose Fulbright, Travers Smith and Mayer Brown (£120k), Reed Smith, Slaughter and May and Ashurst (£125k), and Hogan Lovells and Herbert Smith Freehills (£135k).
Pay for White & Case trainees is also increasing. First year trainees will see their salaries rise from £52k to £62K and second year trainees will get a rise from £61k to £67k.
Many firms only publish their trainee and NQ salaries, leading to complaints that pay bunching higher up the PQE ranks is hidden in a black box.
However, White and Case appears to have decided it has nothing to hide so it might as well go public on some of its other junior bands, too.
The firm has announced that it is also raising its salary for 1PQE solicitors by over £26,000, from £158,500 to £185,500. The rise in itself is significant, but so is the £10k difference between salaries for an NQ and 1PQE lawyer.
Meanwhile 2PQE salaries are increasing by almost £30k, from £171,000 to a giant £200,000. Putting accusations of pay bunching to the sword, the increase represents a £14,500 rise between 1PQE and 2PQE.
The move will put pressure on other firms which boast chunky headline NQ salaries, but are shy about disclosing pay above that.
White & Case hasn't turned completely transparent, however. It said its lawyers’ salaries above that level were “discretionary”, although it did state that “we expect these to be as competitive as those detailed”.
A White & Case spokesperson said that “following discussions with partners” the firm was “increasing legal salaries in London. including for trainees, underlining our position as the leading global law firm”.
“White & Case offers highly attractive careers to ambitious and talented lawyers”, he said, which, going by the numbers, may be hard to dispute.
The incoming pay hikes will please respondents from W&C who quibbled over pay in RollOnFriday’s Best Law Firms to Work At 2024. "Pay is very good when compared to the market generally, but falling behind the 'mid-Atlantic' target the firm traditionally seeks to offer", said one junior solicitor. Not for long, it turned out, while the solicitor who said "I may have traded my life for the salary, but at least I'm in good company", should be even happier with their Faustian pact.
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Comments
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What is the billing / hours target for this sum?
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As an in-house solicitor (commercial) a big thank you to the Management Boards of these firms for these pay rises. The side effect has been a massive increase (50%) in in-house salaries too.
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The sound of managing partners' sphincters tightening at various firms across the City (you know who you are) who have been pretending to keep up by hiking NQ pay without disclosing the band compression above. Well done W&C for giving them nowhere to hide....
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@anonymous
2000 - roughly 9 hours per working day
That’s the rule of thumb for all US firms
But naturally some bill far more, others bill less (but not for too long unless they are in a niche department)
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As a partner at Addleshaw Goddard, I find it necessary to address the incessant clamor for salary hikes among newly-qualified solicitors. It is quite amusing that junior lawyers, who have yet to make meaningful contributions, believe they are entitled to increased pay.
Addleshaw Goddard is synonymous with excellence, and the mere honor of being associated with our firm should be reward enough. The idea that we must follow the salary trends set by other firms is laughable. Our associates should feel privileged to be part of such a distinguished institution, irrespective of pay comparisons.
To those persistently whining, “AG when?” I suggest you recognise your good fortune. Instead of fixating on salary, focus on appreciating the exceptional environment and opportunities that only Addleshaw Goddard can provide. Cease your grumbling and show some gratitude.
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That's marginally better than my Cravath-paying shop, at least in the early years. Anyone know if their bonuses are smaller to compensate and keep their total comp more "mid-Atlantic"?
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So, announcements-wise:
– in Dec-Feb we had the elite US follow Cravath to 180, think Gibson, Akin, Milbank, KE
– in May we had the Magic Circle hitting 150 (Slaughters still to come)
– in June-July we had the Silver Circle around 130-140 (NRF still to come, or they went early)
– in June-July we also had the big national/middle global firms around 100, think DLA, SH, 2B, HFW, Pinsent (AG and the shed conspicuously absent)
– looks like August may be the beginning of the rises from non-elite US Firms (or at least non-Cravath in London), since we’ve had W&C and Dechert raise already. I’d put my money on most US firms currently paying less than £170k to raise soon.
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Vegan Addleshaw Goddard Partner 02 August 24 11:07
Referring to AG in a post about Elite law firms is laughable.
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A big question is if there is bunching. Most top US firms don't bunch - they pay Cravath scale which means a top senior associate will be on near £350,000 base plus £100,000 auto bonus for hitting target hours (more for exceeding other metrics). UK firms can't match that. Query if W&C have.
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Any intel on NQ whack at Wimbledeen Bimble Dindleson? I’m an elite US attorney looking to make a lateral. Currently at Paul [pause for comma] Weiss but am in trouble with HR for continually saying “Weiss so serious?” to my colleague Paul
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So happy to see WC doing their bit to alleviate the current cost of living crisis. Kudos.
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Every other week I regret not going into law.
Tell me is competition to join White & Case intense, very intense, or out of this world?
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It’s still a toxic firm. Regardless of money which isn’t worth it for all the crap you deal with.
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Here is 175k. Now sell your soul.
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Where’s the data on how many lawyers are ‘managed out’ to reduce costs?
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Enjoy it while it lasts, juniors. Once AI properly gets rolled out, you’ll be the first ones getting fired.
That aside, any in-house lawyers / GCs on here who care to give their views on paying this kind of wedge to people who know f-all?
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You wouldn’t have made it.
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Anon 02 August 24 13:32
I'm not sure about your reading comprehension, but the salary scale is clear in the above.
As for your contention that most US firms don't bunch, the fact is they increase in 10-15k increments broadly from year to year, and do not have Cravath rises in between bands. In case you continue to be hard of reading, the operative word there is "broadly". Not all US firms. I already predict you still might understand.
But...hence, only NQ rates which are broadly equivalent to Cravath first year are disclosed. Get the punters in and all that. Licking the cinnamon ring of all the university students and trainees and junior laterals sparkly clean.
By way of example, if of interesmt I just scraped some data from LinkedIn into Excel and pulled over 200 associates at W&C (there are around 230-250, I forget), and then crunched the class years. Around 68% are post 2020 qualifiers. About 26% are 2016-19. Under 6-8% are 2016 or earlier. Those are rough, rough numbers, Australians and NZ'ers are hard to quantify and only do 1 year odd TCs.
I just wanted to shine a light on quite how pointy that pyramid is. This will go completely over the heads of people excited about the salary raises.
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shet ferm
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One can only hope that these youngsters have the good sense to store as much of that cash as possible do they can quickly get on the property ladder by buying a ladder house.
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Top notch elite firm.