Freshfields Raise Trainee Salary; Freezes Associate Pay

Magic Circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have raised their trainee solicitor wages.

First year trainees will now be paid £500 more than previously, taking home £41,000. Second year trainees will be paid £46,000.

Freshfields have matched fellow Magic Circle firm Slaughter and May with their trainee salary. Linklaters lag behind slightly, paying £40,000 and £42,000 to first and second year trainees respectively. Clifford Chance will pay their trainees £42,000 in their first year and £47,300 in their second year.

Allen & Overy are the only Magic Circle firm yet to announce any salary changes for trainees.

However, the Magic Circle firm have frozen the pay of their associates. Freshfields pay their qualified solicitors according to a ‘career milestone’ (CM), in the hopes that it creates a higher performance among their associates. This is unlike most firms who pay their associates based on the number of years’ of experience they have post-qualification (PQE).

Freshfields have bands of CM foundation, CM1, CM2 and CM3.  CM foundation level equates to being a newly qualified solicitor, with pay ranging from £67,500 and £77,500.

Salaries for those at CM1, the equivalent of two years’ PQE remain at £87,500 to £100,000. CM2 (four years’ PQE) salaries range from £107,500 to £115,000. CM3 (six years’ PQE) wages are between £120,000 and £135,000. 

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