Associate Salaries in London
Associate Salaries in London
Anthony Matthews
20 June 2025
With the recent rises in salaries amongst the silver circle and top-tier City firms, the focus on associate remuneration in London has come into the limelight once again.
When I speak with lawyers worldwide, the first thing that people know about London is that lawyers are paid extraordinarily well. In the following article I’ll take a bit of a deeper dive on this focusing on associates rather than partners.
Why do Lawyers in London Get Paid So Well? A Short History
In 2013, when I started in legal recruitment in London, the US firms were a small but emerging force. The markets were stunned when in 2010, Bingham (now defunct) started paying lawyers £100,000 - https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/newly-qualified-city-lawyers-break-ps100-000-salary-barrier-6721218.html . In the same article, the Standard mentions that newly qualified lawyers at Debevoise get paid - £94,500 (now £173,000) and Skadden NQs - £94,000 (now £173,000 also).
Many of these increases have been caused by the emergence and competitiveness of US firms in London who are paying similar rates to what they pay attorneys in New York. To attract the best talent in London (magic/silver circle associates), the US firms have constantly been trying to out-do each other in terms of compensation.
Although junior associates with the top US firms will get paid similarly to New York, once you consider the huge student debt and cost of living in New York, junior associates in London actually come out quite a lot better off than their US counterparts!
To ensure that profitability continues to rise alongside these high salaries, firms are constantly putting up their hourly rates and also increasing the billable hours targets. Clients aren’t too happy with this but the essential nature of needing a competent and fast acting firm on deals is too valuable to scrimp on.
Differences Between the Different Types of Firms
Although the US firms make most of the headlines, it is fair to say that not all law firms in London pay the mega bucks. The below gives a general idea of what associates are paid at different types of law firms (NQ-Snr Associate):
Top-tier City firms - £95,000 - £150,000
Silver Circle - £125,000 - £180,000
Magic Circle - £150,000 - £205,000
US - £165,000 - £310,000
What this Actually Looks Like After Tax
Using Martin Lewis’ helpful tax calculator - https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/tax-calculator/ - you can work out what the above actually looks like in take home pay. Fair to say that the average London lawyer will certainly be doing their bit for HMRC!
PQE Bunching
To maintain competitiveness with other firms, there has been a recent trend of publishing NQ salaries but not mentioning what lawyers at other PQEs get paid. With these salaries not being public knowledge, some mid and senior level lawyers have seen the percentage that their salary will go up per year decreasing. As you can see from the above, if you are making senior associate at a silver or magic circle firm, you’re likely seeing your salary go up by about 5-10% each year, compare that to a US firm where you’re looking more 10-15%. Most of the bunching comes at the NQ-3PQE mark with all firms.
The Rest of the UK
As with a lot of industries in the UK, London really is an outlier when it comes to remuneration. In most of the regional legal centres outside London (Edinburgh, Leeds & Manchester) associates get paid just over half of what they would in the capital. Associates in Bristol, Reading and Guildford get paid more than their northern counterparts but still way behind London. Even when lawyers work for a firm that has a regional and a London office, the lawyers in the London office will be far better remunerated.
The hours are normally longer in London, however lawyers in the regions are often in smaller teams so their work/life balance can be stretched. Speaking with lawyers in these locations, the general consensus is that they are far underpaid compared to London on an hourly basis.
Future Trends
Many of the larger raises recently were caused by the boom in transactional work coming out of the Covid pandemic. With the market slowing down, we have seen fewer firms increasing salaries over the last couple of years and by a much smaller percentage; I’d expect this trend to continue. New York is the big driver behind London raises and we have seen over the last couple of years that firms are focusing more on competitive bonus structures rather than flat salary rises.
The next big change is likely to be the magic circle firms. With silver and top-tier City firms getting ever closer, I’d expect NQ salaries at magic circle firms to either be raised to £155 or £160 in 25/26. Whether the mid-level PQE bandings will rise as well is less clear!
Anthony P Matthews
With the recent rises in salaries amongst the silver circle and top-tier City firms, the focus on associate remuneration in London has come into the limelight once again.
When I speak with lawyers worldwide, the first thing that people know about London is that lawyers are paid extraordinarily well. In the following article I’ll take a bit of a deeper dive on this focusing on associates rather than partners.
Why do Lawyers in London Get Paid So Well? A Short History
In 2013, when I started in legal recruitment in London, the US firms were a small but emerging force. The markets were stunned when in 2010, Bingham (now defunct) started paying lawyers £100,000 - https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/newly-qualified-city-lawyers-break-ps100-000-salary-barrier-6721218.html . In the same article, the Standard mentions that newly qualified lawyers at Debevoise get paid - £94,500 (now £173,000) and Skadden NQs - £94,000 (now £173,000 also).
Many of these increases have been caused by the emergence and competitiveness of US firms in London who are paying similar rates to what they pay attorneys in New York. To attract the best talent in London (magic/silver circle associates), the US firms have constantly been trying to out-do each other in terms of compensation.
Although junior associates with the top US firms will get paid similarly to New York, once you consider the huge student debt and cost of living in New York, junior associates in London actually come out quite a lot better off than their US counterparts!
To ensure that profitability continues to rise alongside these high salaries, firms are constantly putting up their hourly rates and also increasing the billable hours targets. Clients aren’t too happy with this but the essential nature of needing a competent and fast acting firm on deals is too valuable to scrimp on.
Differences Between the Different Types of Firms
Although the US firms make most of the headlines, it is fair to say that not all law firms in London pay the mega bucks. The below gives a general idea of what associates are paid at different types of law firms (NQ-Snr Associate):
Top-tier City firms - £95,000 - £150,000
Silver Circle - £125,000 - £180,000
Magic Circle - £150,000 - £205,000
US - £165,000 - £310,000
What this Actually Looks Like After Tax
Using Martin Lewis’ helpful tax calculator - https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/tax-calculator/ - you can work out what the above actually looks like in take home pay. Fair to say that the average London lawyer will certainly be doing their bit for HMRC!
PQE Bunching
To maintain competitiveness with other firms, there has been a recent trend of publishing NQ salaries but not mentioning what lawyers at other PQEs get paid. With these salaries not being public knowledge, some mid and senior level lawyers have seen the percentage that their salary will go up per year decreasing. As you can see from the above, if you are making senior associate at a silver or magic circle firm, you’re likely seeing your salary go up by about 5-10% each year, compare that to a US firm where you’re looking more 10-15%. Most of the bunching comes at the NQ-3PQE mark with all firms.
The Rest of the UK
As with a lot of industries in the UK, London really is an outlier when it comes to remuneration. In most of the regional legal centres outside London (Edinburgh, Leeds & Manchester) associates get paid just over half of what they would in the capital. Associates in Bristol, Reading and Guildford get paid more than their northern counterparts but still way behind London. Even when lawyers work for a firm that has a regional and a London office, the lawyers in the London office will be far better remunerated.
The hours are normally longer in London, however lawyers in the regions are often in smaller teams so their work/life balance can be stretched. Speaking with lawyers in these locations, the general consensus is that they are far underpaid compared to London on an hourly basis.
Future Trends
Many of the larger raises recently were caused by the boom in transactional work coming out of the Covid pandemic. With the market slowing down, we have seen fewer firms increasing salaries over the last couple of years and by a much smaller percentage; I’d expect this trend to continue. New York is the big driver behind London raises and we have seen over the last couple of years that firms are focusing more on competitive bonus structures rather than flat salary rises.
The next big change is likely to be the magic circle firms. With silver and top-tier City firms getting ever closer, I’d expect NQ salaries at magic circle firms to either be raised to £155 or £160 in 25/26. Whether the mid-level PQE bandings will rise as well is less clear!
Anthony P Matthews