Is he lying about his salary

130k for a 30 year old lawyer is definitely plausible.

If he’s living at home presume he’s saving up for a house. Easy to find out by asking why he’s living at home? He openly tells you his salary so this question shouldn’t be a problem.

He doesn’t show an extravagant lifestyle. Well I was at home for years saving up too. I wasn’t earning that much but I definitely had a fair bit of money which I could have spent on nice clothes, restaurants, holidays etc. Instead it all went on a deposit to my first home. I actually went to work with tinned soup. People thought I was on my knees broke.

Magic circle are the top 5 uk (London) city firms eg Clifford chance - they pay their lawyers and partners an absolute mint (millions for partners)

silver circle are the next slice down - so still very top firms who specialise in finance and corporate law etc (amongst other areas)

but there are many other firms - increasingly US law firms which have opened in the UK who pay their newly qualifieds £160k plus but expect blood, sweat and tears

and various other well known national and regional firms - who would pay less

What does magic/silver circle mean?

All the big firms will have a public law practice with lawyers warning that much. Human rights not so much, except pro bono.

@BarcardiWithGadaffia I thought it was relevant bc op implied his spending didn't seem in line with his high salary. Of course everyone has different priorities for their money and op shouldn't make judgements over a superficial glance at his spending.

It is most likely one of two things

1. he does commercial litigation with the odd bit of public law angle thrown in and is really earning c£130k
2. he really does public law and human rights full time and is likely lying about his salary

Outgoings are less of an indicator as he may just be frugal and saving hard.

Massive concern that he lives at home at 30?!?

Clearly you have no idea how expensive London is to live in for young people. Better he stay at home with his parents than pay £1,500 in rent and bills for a room in a houseshare.

But the question is whether hes lying about his salary not should he be a spendthrift.

A bit naff to be telling your salary to someone you've only been dating a couple of months, but the size of the salary sounds about right for London.

He's not a big spender.

How is being frugal related to his salary though?

Legal aid stopped when Tories was in power. It will hopefully come back to help the poor.

Working out his salary already op you don't waste time. Poor bloke works hard to get to where he is and your eyes have widened at the possibility it's true. What do you do for a living and what do you earn?

No he must not be in a small firm. There are a lot of firms in between “magic circle” and “small”. As I said in the thread above, the top 50 firm that I used to work for pays its newly qualified solicitors £65k in London. It is not a small firm.

Maybe I'm not au fait with how the law works but how does a lawyer working in human rights and public law earn that much?

Isn't it all legal aid? That's peanuts surely.

Again, he is not in magic circle OBVIOUSLY. Magic circle pays more than that to people with zero experience; so way
more than that to someone with several years experience. MEANING, his salary is entirely plausible and even a little low for his age.

in-house lawyers are paid less than pp with same number of years of experience.

YES obviously he is not in magic circle. So I said that he must be in a small firm because magic circle pays more than that to first year lawyers, let alone someone with mid-level experience.

I have a feeling that for you, this is more about what he earns than whether or not he is a liar.

I know….it’s surprisingly common!!!!

One is 33 and owns a 2 bed penthouse in zone 1 outright. 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫
She bought for 650k now about 8-9 years back….

It’s all about priorities…
she turned up to a wedding last year wearing a dress she used to wear to end of year bops at uni 😅 and driving a brand new Porsche

just nuts… all my Porsche money is being spent on fucking childcare for my beloved cherubs

Check out the salaries of newly qualified solicitors at his firm on legal cheek, roll on Friday, lawcareers.net and see if his salary makes sense with his level of experience.

I really don’t think it’s a massive concern at all

why pay £2.5k a month towards someone else’s mortgage when that could go towards his house deposit

It's definitely possible, it's also possible that he's saving for a house etc. Not everyone earning megabucks make it obvious.

Salary, bonus, plus shares - very possible. His take home will be much less than you think due to tax

I completely understand why you’re asking this. It’s very important to get prospective partners and to do so via stealth.
But salaries can be misleading.
Something to be mindful of is trust funds. You never know who might have one so you can’t base any assessment on salary alone.

Something that is of massive concern is that he’s still living with his parents at 30.

Entirely possible. Also you don’t have to live a particular way if you earn that much… I imagine he’s probably living at home saving up a really good deposit for a house and which in the london area he’ll need quite a big one.