lawyer salary

[tg95]

hi, any lawyers on here with some advice?

currently half way through my TC in a small regional firm (7 offices, 10 partners) in the NE

what sort of salary can i expect on qualification, after 5 years, 10 years etc?

currently on 17,500k and looking to specialise in company commercial law and employment

We qualified on about 40k but trained at DLA Piper (in the regions) so they pay at the top end.

Our salaries jumped massively when we moved to Dubai. Not much point in sharing those as it's not the same as in the UK. I've no idea what I'd be on if I'd stayed in UK. 7 years PQE now.

Also our route would be trainee, solicitor, senior solicitor, associate, senior associate, legal director, partner (salaried then equity)

I would estimate a starting NQ salary of Round £25-30k. Depending on how well the market does over next couple years you might expect a 2-5% annual increase.

As you hit each promotion level you might also expect a small bump - couple of grand.

It's not really what the roles are called so much as is there identifiable career progression - I worked at one place where once you were qualified, that was it, there were solicitors and partners. Very few became partners so there was no career progression for the solicitors and quite a lot of office politics as people tried to organise their own hierarchy,

I trained with Pinsents but am going by our regional rates minus a bit.
You can never guarantee annual pay rises so estimate them conservatively.

Roll on Friday is a good source of info on salaries across both City and Regonal firms

Or alternatively, cross-qualify to the Bar, and enjoy the exhilarating terror of not being quite sure how much, when, or whether you're going to be paid at all

Haha! Would it be reasonably safe to predict a salary in the region of 55-60k 8-10 years PQE specialising in commercial?

Yes, that sounds like a reasonable conservative estimate, although who on earth knows what anything will look like in 8-10 years....

that's interesting to note, i suppose it's all relative when you take into account costs of living etc

Laura - you seem very knowledgeable on these things... is the NE typically the lowest paid region for lawyers in the UK?

Our NQs start on £35k. We are a medium size regional firm and it’s fairly standard locally with similar sized firms.

Smaller high street type outfits tend to pay much less.

I’d say your aspirations for 8-10yrs PQE are achievable.

hi dragon,

that's reassuring as that's an excellent salary here. We aren't a small firm in our region (7 offices, around 12-15 partners) but of course in the UK we are. i wouldn't classify us as 'high street'.

what would you guesstimate, based on your firm and knowledge, my NQ salary being bearing in mind by 17.5k as a trainee? how often does it increase and by how much usually?

Our trainees are in £8k more than you are so if you apply the same maths to the NQ rate then I’d say around £27k would be about right?

I know smaller firms in our region who pay about the same trainee rate as you’re on pay around £25-28k upon qualification.

Oh and ours increases incrementally each year, anywhere up to 4%, depending on your performance scores that year.

There’s more significant salary jumps as you apply for advancement though, which tends to be every 3-5years

thanks dragon i appreciate it. for our firm it tends to be trainee-lawyer-snr lawyer-salaried partner-equity partner

would you be considered a senior lawyer after say 5 years?

also re. performance - say i had a target of 4k p/m (as an example), what would be considered very impressive? 5k? 6?

You wouldn’t be considered senior in our firm until around c7yrs PQE. We have an extra level in our structure though.

Those targets are very low. Our NQs have a target of around £12k pcm (depending on practice area it can vary slightly). £15/16k a month would be ‘impressive’ as opposed to just doing well and being over target.

It’s the age old problem of the more you earn, the more that is expected of you in terms of financial targets. Most commercial firms have a minimum salary metric they require of you to achieve - it’s usually between 3 and 3.5 at a junior level and then 4 for senior lawyers

hi dragon,

what do you mean about salary metric?

It’s the formula they use @tg95 to fix your target against your salary.

In other words if all NQs start on £30k and the firm has a metric of 3 at NQ level you’ll be expected to bill £90k in your first year. If you ended up billing £120k then you would probably get an ex gratia bonus at the end of the year or you would start your PQE1 on a slightly higher base salary than colleagues who billed £90k or less.

But bear in mind that what you bill is not necessarily the same as the billable time you record as depending on the matter, your supervising partner may write time off. You therefore want to try to position yourself to work on matters where both the client and the matter can bear the amount of time you legitimately record to it.

thanks katrina.

one last question! what sort of salary can you expect for a salaried and equity partner? i have tied to research but most are for London firms and big regionals...

I’ve only ever worked in London so can’t help with that I’m afraid. But equity partners take a share of profits not a salary so that will fluctuate depending on what kind of year the practice has had. The firm I qualified into was in trouble (and folded the year after I left) and I earned more in that year than the equity partners did - many were left with debts for several years afterwards!

You are entitled to see the accounts before accepting a partnership so do your due diligence when you get to that stage.

@tg95 how long is a piece of string?! If varies so wildly depending on so many different factors.

I’m surprised you can’t find any info online. I’m forever getting salary surveys which split salaries down to regions. Maybe contact a national legal recruiter who may be able to send you a copy?