Jones Day ups pay for new lawyers to £140,000 a year
US law firm Jones Day is set to give its newly-qualified (NQ) lawyers 27 per cent pay rises in upping their annual salaries to heights of £140,000 a year.
NQ lawyers working in Jones Day’s London offices will see their salaries surge beyond those paid out to those in the Magic Circle in seeing their pay packets increase by £30,000 a year, according to multiple reports.
The pay hikes put Jones Day’s NQ salaries on par with US rivals Dechert and Cleary Gottlieb, and well ahead of those at the higher end of the Magic Circle – Freshfields and Clifford Chance – who pay their NQs £125,000 a year.
The pay rises come as the UK’s crashing pound has bolstered the salaries of British lawyers working in American firms.
The favourable exchange rate saw lawyers at Akin Gump – whose salaries are calculated via conversions from US dollars – soar to heights of £179,000.
Jones Day’s trainees will also see their salaries jump to £54,000 in the first year and £61,000 in the second, putting it near the top end of the law firm payscale.
The salary hikes come as research has shown the higher salaries being paid out to lawyers have dented law firms’ profitability.