Taylor Root are delighted to release our latest private practice salary survey for lawyers within private practice in the UK.

1. UK PRIVATE PRACTICE
SALARY SURVEY 2011
taylorroot.com

2. UK PRIVATE PRACTICE
SALARY SURVEY - 2011
ABOUT US
Based in London, Taylor Root’s UK Private Practice team successfully places lawyers at
all levels in law firms in the South and Midlands, ranging from large multi-national to
small and medium-sized practices.
We are truly expert in our markets and as such, we are well placed to deliver highly
specialised advice to candidates and law firms.
taylorroot.com

3. UK PRIVATE PRACTICE
SALARY SURVEY - 2011
THE LONDON MARKET
PQ E Top-tier/International Medium sized - City West End
NQ £59,000 - £61,500 £50,000 - £58,000 £35,000 - £55,000
1 Year £63,000 - £68,000 £52,000 - £65,000 £40,000 - £58,000
2 Years £69,000 - £75,000 £58,000 - £70,000 £45,000 - £64,000
3 Years £71,000 - £88,000 £63,000 - £76,000 £48,000 - £70,000
4 Years £85,000 - £100,000 £70,000 - £85,000 £52,000 - £75,000
5 Years £87,000 - £105,000 £71,000 - £98,000 £55,000 - £80,000
WHERE WE WERE IMPACT ON SALARIES
From the salary war that erupted in 2007 to the subsequent As a result of 2010’s overall prosperity, many firms reacted by
start and finish of one of the worst recessions in modern unfreezing their associate salaries and in some cases increasing
history, the Private Practice recruitment market in London has the bandings of their salary reviews. Whilst magic circle NQs will
certainly experienced a volatile few years. City law firms were not collect the £66,000 salary they could in 2007, they will
hit hard as early as mid 2008. As Lehman collapsed and new now be paid a respectable figure ranging between £59,000 and
instructions dried up, associate utilisation levels nosedived and £61,500. Although additional firms have now decided to do
the reaction was dramatic. Very few firms escaped having to away with lockstep associate salaries and adopt performance
implement significant redundancy programmes and most related pay systems, many firms are sticking with the traditional
lawyers who were fortunate enough to keep their jobs had to PQE banding approach for now. It will be interesting to see
swallow a pay freeze and, in some cases, a reduced hours which model prevails.
working week. The magic circle reduced their NQ salary rates by
around £5,000 and most other firms followed suit. Firms MARKET CONFIDENCE
battened down the hatches and stringent hiring freezes were put
in place: 2009 was truly the annus horribilis for the UK legal Many candidates remained understandably nervous about
market. making a move at the beginning of 2010 but we found that
confidence increased as the year wore on. The hire on mass
THE ROAD TO RECOVERY ‘bums on seats’ approach that was adopted by several firms in
2007 is now a distant memory, but good quality candidates
As 2009 ended, the green shoots of recovery began to soon came to see that they had a wealth of options on offer
emerge and 2010 saw confidence gradually return to the when they came to the market. The junior end of the market
City. The effect on the legal recruitment market was marked: remains the one area still yet to experience a full recovery.
the first Corporate and Banking roles in over 12 months were Trainee retention rates remain low and while the external NQ
released and the momentum was maintained throughout the market is getting busier, it is still quiet in comparison with 2007.
year. Clearly some of this recruitment was necessary in order However, there is no doubt that March / September 2011 will
to replace those who lost their roles as a result of be a better time to qualify than the corresponding dates in
redundancies once work levels picked up, but several firms 2009.
were simply in expansion mode. With the exception of Real
Estate, all practice areas picked up over the course of the LOOKING AHEAD
year.
At the time of writing in Q2 2011, the future looks promising
THE EFFECT OF THE CHANGE TO VISAS but still a little cloudy. No-one can say with authority that the
economy has fully recovered but there is a prevailing feeling in
A sure fire indication of an improved market came in the the legal market that we are out of the woods. This is reflected
summer of 2010 as international firms began to hire overseas in the stream of new instructions at the associate level that we
qualified lawyers from Australia and New Zealand again. have already seen in 2011.
However, the new coalition government has recently put a
massive squeeze on the number of visas on offer to such
candidates. Firms are going to have to be more and more
creative to satisfy their recruitment needs in the year ahead.
Good news for UK candidates.
taylorroot.com

4. UK PRIVATE PRACTICE
SALARY SURVEY - 2011
SOUTH WEST & WALES
P QE Large Medium Small
NQ £35,000 - £43,000 £28,000 - £36,000 £24,000 - £30,000
1 Year £38,000 - £47,000 £32,000 - £39,000 £26,000 - £33,000
2 Years £41,000 - £51,000 £35,000 - £42,000 £30,000 - £37,000
3 Years £43,000 - £58,000 £37,000 - £45,000 £34,000 - £40,000
4 Years £46,000 - £63,000 £40,000 - £50,000 £38,000 - £45,000
5 Years £47,000 - £70,000 £43,000 - £55,000 £42,000 - £50,000
The South West and Welsh legal markets were adversely hit by the economic downturn. Whilst the market is slowly recovering,
the pace of recovery within the region is lagging somewhat behind London. On a more positive note, salaries are on the rise again,
though in many instances have not surpassed the heights reached in 2007/2008 before the crash.
Demand for contentious lawyers remains steady, and encouragingly there has been a bounce back in contentious commercial
disciplines, particularly IT/IP, outsourcing and franchising, all of which have displayed a real resurgence as the financial markets gain
increasing strength and momentum.
Despite the recent adverse market conditions, demand for lawyers in Bristol continues to compete with the other major legal centres
outside London in terms of the quality of work on offer and the calibre of lawyers that they seek to recruit.
SOUTH EAST & THAMES VALLEY
P QE Large Medium Small
NQ £34,000 - £55,000 £31,000 - £37,000 £24,000 - £35,000
1 Year £36,000 - £58,000 £32,000 - £40,000 £27,000 - £38,000
2 Years £40,000 - £59,000 £33,000 - £42,000 £29,000 - £39,000
3 Years £41,000 - £65,000 £35,000 - £45,000 £34,000 - £42,000
4 Years £42,000 - £68,000 £40,000 - £49,000 £35,000 - £43,000
5 Years £43,000 - £70,000 £42,000 - £55,000 £37,000 - £46,000
Towards the back end of 2010 the legal market in the South East and the Thames Valley slowly began to pick up – something which
has continued in to the new year and looks set to build momentum throughout 2011. Perhaps as a consequence of these more cost
conscious times, many firms outside London have capitalised on their lower cost base and are continuing to see new instructions
increase. In particular, since the beginning of this year, there has been a noticeable increase in demand for commercial lawyers
throughout the region.
One of the key attractions to this region for lawyers looking to move out of London is that they no longer have to compromise on the
quality of work that they are used to doing. True, deal values are generally lower, but the quality and complexity of work as well as the
calibre of clients and work colleagues are excellent and often comparable to that found in the City. At the same time, the same lawyers
are able to enjoy improved quality of life benefits, better prospects for advancement and relatively high regional salaries – whilst still
having all the trappings of the capital on their doorstep when wanted. Many firms have recruited excellent talent at partner level and
below over the past year.
taylorroot.com

5. UK PRIVATE PRACTICE
SALARY SURVEY - 2011
MIDLANDS
P QE Large Medium Small
NQ £33,000 - £39,000 £28,000 - £35,000 £21,000 - £30,000
1 Year £37,000 - £41,000 £29,500 - £36,500 £23,000 - £32,500
2 Years £39,000 - £44,000 £32,000 - £39,750 £26,000 - £33,750
3 Years £41,000 - £48,000 £35,000 - £44,000 £29,250 - £38,000
4 Years £44,000 - £52,000 £38,000 - £48,500 £31,000 - £39,500
5 Years £48,000 - £60,000 £43,500 - £54,250 £35,000 - £43,000
After a turbulent couple of years during which salaries have stagnated somewhat, the market is starting to show signs of recovery, and
with it firms have looked to upwardly review fee earner salaries. Over the last couple of years we have seen junior lawyers bear the
brunt of salary cuts as firms sought to balance the books and maintain a sensible financial gap between the earnings of NQ, Assistant
and Associate level lawyers. Many firms have looked to rely on bonus schemes to reward star performers as well as looking at
performance related pay as a method of incentivising fee earners and avoiding the standard 'one size fits all' approach of reviewing
total remuneration.
Retention rates at the NQ level improved in 2010 and there is cautious optimism that these figures will improve further over the course
of 2011 as workflows and the general financial landscape improves. The fact that numerous firms took steps to reduce their trainee
intakes means there will be a dip in the number of trainees qualifying over the next 18 months, which may give those approaching
qualification options, both internally with their training firms and externally.
Midlands lawyers remain amongst the best remunerated outside the capital; a fact that reflects the calibre of work and client base that
the region’s leading law firms service. Birmingham is the most mature of the region’s legal markets and also the most saturated with
law firms. Accordingly, salaries in the second city are unsurprisingly the highest in the Midlands, with newly qualified pay peaking this
year at £39,000 (down from £41,000 the previous year). Other major centres in the West Midlands such as Coventry, Wolverhampton,
Worcester and Leamington are less populated by top-tier commercial law firms and so salaries lag noticeably behind those paid in
Birmingham.
Historically, the East Midlands legal market has operated in the shadow of its counterparts in the West, but Nottingham in particular now
boasts a number of generous-paying household name law firms and with practices such as Eversheds, Shoosmiths, HBJ Gateley
Wareing, Browne Jacobson and Freeth Cartwright now having offices in both regions, the pay differential of old is diminishing.
EAST ANGLIA
P QE Large Medium Small
NQ £33,000 - £39,000 £28,000 - £34,000 £23,000 - £30,000
1 Year £35,000 - £42,000 £32,000 - £37,000 £26,000 - £32,000
2 Years £38,000 - £46,000 £34,000 - £40,000 £28,000 - £35,000
3 Years £40,000 - £51,000 £35,000 - £44,000 £31,000 - £38,000
4 Years £42,000 - £56,000 £37,000 - £48,000 £35,000 - £43,000
5 Years £48,000 - £60,000 £45,000 - £55,000 £38,000 - £50,000
East Anglia retains a remarkably strong legal market. The region continues to be a hotbed of leading technology companies, thriving SMEs
and major agricultural concerns and this, combined with its proximity to London, has led many of the UK's leading national and regional
law firms to establish a base here. Cambridge in particular boasts a number of premier legal practices and there are still opportunities for
those looking to relocate to the area. The region’s property and corporate departments, both large and small, were greatly affected by
the slowdown in economic activity in 2009.
Whilst many of the smaller firms in East Anglia put a temporary freeze on recruitment, we are starting to see signs of recovery
as they take the tentative steps towards hiring again. A number of the leading practices have continued their steady growth with
areas such as commercial, IT/IP and litigation remaining particularly in demand. Competition remains high amongst firms for top quality,
ambitious fee-earners and although salary levels have not seen an increase for the last couple of years, talented lawyers continue to be
tempted away from the 'Big Smoke' in search of a City-style firm that can offer an improved quality of life and more immediate
prospects of career progression.
taylorroot.com

6. UK PRIVATE PRACTICE
SALARY SURVEY - 2011
CONTACTS
FOR LONDON FOR MIDLANDS / EAST ANGLIA
DARRYN HALE JUSTIN GYPHION
London Office London Office
E: darrynhale@taylorroot.com T: +44 (0) 20 7415 2828
E: justingyphion@taylorroot.com
FOR SOUTH T: +44 (0) 207 415 2828
GEMMA HAMSHAR
London Office
E: gemmahamshar@taylorroot.com
ABOUT TAYLOR ROOT
Taylor Root is a specialist legal and compliance recruitment consultancy with a wide network of international offices. We have been
established in Asia since 1998 and have assisted a broad range of clients source the best legal talent across the region at all levels from
General Counsel to junior lawyers. If you are seeking to hire into your team or looking to make a career move, please do not hesitate to
contact one of our consultants.
For further surveys & publications visit – taylorroot.com
LONDON HONG KONG MELBOURNE
95 Queen Victoria Street 1918 Hutchison House, 10 Harcourt Road Level 2, Rialto North Tower, 525 Collins Street
London EC4V 4HN Central, Hong Kong Melbourne, VIC 3000
T: +44 (0)20 7415 2828 T: +852 2973 6333 T: +61 (0)3 8610 8400
DUBAI SYDNEY SINGAPORE
Suite 614, Liberty House, DIFC Level 12, 25 Bligh Street Level 15, Prudential Tower
PO Box 506739, Dubai, UAE Sydney, NSW 2000 30 Cecil Street, Singapore 049712
T: +9714 448 7770 T: +61 (0)2 9236 9000 T: +65 6232 2932
TAYLOR ROOT IS A MEMBER OF THE SR GROUP: