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The Times
June 30 1998
Frances Gibb on the possible rewards for trainees
Fancy starting on £20,000 or so?
Law firms desperate to woo the best graduates are offering trainee salaries of £23,000 a year, with perks such as free lunches, free bars and in-house doctors. A new Chambers & Partners guide for students wanting to enter the law shows that the lucky ones who secure a training contract can expect good financial rewards.
At the top of the market, trainees can earn about £20,000 when they start with a City firm, although one, Gouldens, offers £23,500. The salaries rise in the second year and, on qualification, can exceed £31,000.
Competition for newly qualified solicitors is now such that lawyers in big City law firms doing commercial work can expect 20 per cent pay rises this year as rivalry hots up between American and British law firms. A survey just published by the legal headhunters Longbridge International says that newly qualified lawyers in the City will be able to command up to £34,000 this year. Salaries are lower in the regions, but a newly qualified solicitor is likely to be offered between £18,500 and £25,000.
The Chambers student guide, which comes out as students prepare for the scramble for training places, gives a table to show what benefits some firms offer. Gym or sports club membership is commonplace. Berwin Leighton offers a season ticket loan, life assurance and sports club subsidy. SJ Berwin offers free lunches, profit-related pay and corporate sports membership, and Clyde & Co benefits include an interest-free ticket loan and staff restaurant.
The big salaries offered in commercial firms make it increasingly difficult for the smaller firms, many doing legal aid work, to recruit trainees at all.
All the City firms will pay students for their one-year professional training period (legal practice course) and some also pay maintainance: Clifford Chance gives £4,000 a year for students living in London or £3,400 outside it. Trainees outside London could be on as little as £10,500, rising to £15,000 to £20,000 on qualifying.
Though law firms are vying for the best graduates, the graduates are in tough competition for the trainee contracts. Already, law graduates are applying for training contracts for the year 2000. Non-law graduates have to do an extra law-conversion year after their degree course.
The latest Law Society figures show that there were 4,760 training contracts last year, compared with 4,338 for the year before. But 5,661 students enrolled on the legal practice course, and that takes no account of students still looking from previous years. The Chambers guide gives students' views of some of the firms as well as tables of salaries, tables showing firms ranked by training contracts and an A to Z of some 500 law firms.
It also details what law firms look for: most will consider students from any university (108 out of a survey of 144) but 36 expressed preferences, ranging from redbrick and traditional to "more than 30 years old".
A table of universities mentioned most is topped by Cambridge and Oxford, followed by Bristol, Durham, Birmingham, Manchester, Exeter, King's College London, University College, London School of Economics, Nottingham and others.
- Chambers & Partners - A guide to the legal profession, student edition; available via Biblios Distribution Services, 01403 710971.
