To think that no newly qualified lawyer can be worth a salary of £150k?

Snobby is a rather odd word to use?

I still quite literally have nightmares that I’m still working there.

They're probably working twice as many hours as you, after tax probably getting about twice as much net pay, and given London weighting probably earning two and a half times as much in billable hours for their employers. Seems fair enough.

God, that was an essay. Sorry! I just typed without thinking!

Their employers consider them worth it. Not sure why anything else matters.

Hard for me to explain why, without being outing, but I have worked with many trainee solicitors at corporate firms. I regularly interact with senior lawyers at them too and am friends with several (from attending law school together.)

It depends a bit on what one considers “worth”. NQ solicitors in those firms have fees targets which are approx 3 times their salary - something that can be achieved given the high rate at which their work is billed to their corporate clients. Those firms are ruthlessly profit driven. They will be keeping an eye on the future profitability of those solicitors - so even if they aren’t making huge amounts of money for the firm to start, the firm will be willing to pay high salaries for the profit they can make off them later as a way to attract and retain them.

The work at such firms tends to be done in teams on one or two large cases at most and there is a lot of boring but chargeable admin work which has to be done by someone and usually falls to trainees and NQs. They are pushed to do it for long hours to meet their targets.

At the junior end the solicitors don’t do what I consider “law” as there is very little advising, very little significant drafting, very little thinking through cases etc. It’s basically well paid donkey work and frankly, it may make them a lot of money but I would find it boring.

Ignore the posters on here who seem to think that such lawyers are cleverer than local solicitors. They’re often not. Being very clever doesn’t mean you will go to those firms - not everyone is motivated by cash. And those outside the profession know nothing about the hours of legal aid lawyers so ignore them too. We often work similar hours but for less financial reward.

I do something very particular and am well known (in my field) for what I do - so much so that I have been head-hunted by bigger firms who act for the defendants. I’d hate it. Like you, I do a job that serves a particular client group. I make a huge difference to individual lives, helping people who need help but can’t afford it. The public law cases I do have wider impact too, which is worth more than money to me.

If you want to switch to corporate law you probably can. But why would you want to?!

I’m not high worth in my job the same way some of my university classmates were. One of them took a job after uni that had a very high salary and a guaranteed 250k golden handshake after 4 years, that was well over twenty years ago so life changing money at the time. Some of them had serious potential and are now on serious remuneration that reflects their value to their work organisation. I’m paid well but not at those levels because frankly I didn’t have their potential.

Isn't is practice?

They’re not worth that in the sense that there is no way they are billing anywhere near more than they earn.

But they do sell their soul and work absolutely insane hours.

I work in a non-fee earning role in a silver circle firm and sometimes it does piss me off that an NQ gets paid the same as me (not MC salaries!!), a highly qualified professional with decades of experience under their belt.

But then I close my laptop at 5.30 and don’t think about work until the next time I’m in and remember that they’re welcome to work those hours for that salary.

Given that you don't seem to know the difference between "practice" and "practise", I'm surprised you qualified as a solicitor at all.

Exactly Bryce. Their clients are huge conglomerates its apples and pears. Also they get their pound of flesh - I speak from experience.

But it's not comparable. I used to do marketing for tech firms and earned £75k at 25, other marketers who work for charities were on £27k. You can't compare one of the biggest British law firms serving global clients to a small local office.

You’re quite correct, they aren’t worth it, but that’s the world we live in sadly. There is no correlation between “worthwhile” jobs which actually benefit humanity, and salary.

It's based on billables OP which I'm sure you know. Magic circle firms are working on massive cross border transactions that bring in millions, that's why they pay so much. Look up the PEP for those firms and contrast to your own and you have your answer. You are comparing apples and pears.

You're a solicitor who doesn't understand how your own industry works?

You don't understand the type or nature of work taken on by Magic Circle firms in your own industry?

What a bizarre post.

You've answered your question in your post - you work in a small firm which serves the community. The firms you think are snobby act for huge businesses where the legal advice relates to business transactions that are worth millions so they pay accordingly for their legal advice and the lawyers giving the advice get paid proportionate to that.

You chose your small firm and get paid accordingly. Others choose the big firms and get paid accordingly.

I was paid £50k as an NQ at one of these firms 20 years ago and that seemed a lot - so £150k seems beyond daft to me!

As pp have said it’s not really about that person’s current value. It’s about their ability, the value they will hopefully bring in the future and securing that person now before another firm does.

Maybe the question you should ask is why, as a partner, are you only making 60k?

It sounds like you are very underpaid. A partner should be bringing in 6 figures easily. Is you law firm very small and unprofitable?

As for 150k starting salaries I don't think it's the norm for law. I'd expect a lot to start on more like £30k

That’s quite the sizeable chip on your shoulder OP about snobby London law firms.

As someone who frequently instructs such firms, and used to be in such a firm, no the NQs are t worth that. But that’s what they are paying to compete with Us firms to get the top talent.

The thing is though, you simply can’t compare what they do to what you do. It is wildly different. The work is completely different and so are the expectations. But this is hardly news. I’m a little younger than you but it was very clear, when I was making career choices in the last century about where to apply to train that hours would be hugely longer in the city but it would pay massively better. And so to the city I went.

Their transactions are worth hundreds of millions and the charge put rates and billable targets match. They serve a different community to yours and really the jobs aren’t comparable despite the common professional body. How that makes them snobby, I’m not sure. And you’ve obviously missed the latest upgrade to £180k by the Americans.

As others have said, isn’t there a sleep in the office culture at those firms so you work every waking minute? That comes at a price.

It would also seem you’re quite lowly paid for your age and role. I’m in a sector adjacent to law and usually slightly less paid and I’m in just over £100k in the North with ten years of experience, and not yet partner.

I worked in HR at one of the magic circle firms in the 1990s. We used to do the milk round and target certain universities.

Lawyers worked very long hours, through the night sometimes, sleeping under desks when there's a deal to close. The pressure is intense.

MC firms do not recruit based on who you know.