Top 10 US firm White & Case has boosted pay for its newly-qualified (NQ) lawyers in London by £25k in a move that sees it near the top of the market amid the ongoing junior pay wars. 

NQs in the 500-lawyer office will see their salaries jump from £150k to £175k as of 1 January 2025, an increase of nearly 17%. 

The raises see White & Case join an elite group of US firms that have upped NQ salaries to £170k, way ahead of the £150k salaries at the top-paying UK firms.

Also at the start of 2025, White & Case’s London trainees will see their salaries increase from £56k to £62k in year one and from £61k to £67k in year two, amounts that take it to the top of the market for trainee pay according to research by Legal Cheek.

The raises extend to the firm’s more experienced junior lawyers, with one-year post-qualified experience (PQE) associate pay increasing from £158.5k to £185.5k and the two PQE rate hitting the £200k mark, up from £171k. Salaries for White & Case’s associates at the three PQE level and beyond are discretionary, though the firm noted that it expected them to be as competitive as those for its more junior lawyers. 

A White & Case spokesperson commented: “White & Case offers attractive careers to ambitious and talented lawyers. Our teams in London advise global clients on their most important cross-border deals and disputes and our people enjoy promotion opportunities and the benefits of the range of strong practices we have built in the City. 

“Following discussions with partners, we are increasing legal salaries in London, including for trainees, underlining our position as a leading global law firm.”

The firm takes in around 50 new trainees in London each year and has had an average retention rate of around 80% since 2019. 

The competitiveness of the New York firm’s new pay rates is particularly notable given the fact that the size of its London arm sets it apart from many of its US rivals, which have smaller overseas operations and benefit from being anchored in the lucrative US market, handing them a distinct advantage over the top UK firms in the London junior salary war. 

Quinn Emanuel and Gibson Dunn are at the top of the pile with an eye-watering £180k rate, while Akin, Fried Frank and Milbank all pay £177.5k. White & Case’s raise will see it match Sidley Austin and Goodwin Procter at the £175k mark, and push past six more firms – Vinson & Elkins, Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Paul Hastings, Davis Polk and Weil – that have rates ranging from £170k to just shy of £174k.

The space between them and the £150k Magic Circle firms Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, A&O Shearman, Clifford Chance and Linklaters pay their NQs after recent raises – the most among the UK firms – is similarly dominated by US outfits, including Ropes & Gray and Willkie Farr (both £165k), Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton (£164.5k), Debevoise & Plimpton (£160.5k) and King & Spalding (£156k).