By Louis Goss
New York law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges has become one of the City’s highest paying firms after hiking salaries for its newly-qualified lawyers to heights of £165,000 a year.
Weil Gotshal’s £5,000 pay hikes for NQs in its London office puts the New York headquartered firm in fourth place in the ongoing pay battle currently playing out between the City’s top firms.
The pay hikes, which come into effect on 1 January 2023, leave the New York firm’s salaries trailing just behind its US rivals Latham & Watkins and Kirkland & Ellis, who both pay their NQs £170,000 per annum.
However, Weil Gotshal’s pay rises still leave the law firm’s salaries trailing £14,000 behind City pay battle frontrunner Akin Gump, which pays its NQs £179,000 a year.
Weil Gotshal’s decision to hike its NQ salaries to £165,000 comes as the firm’s third NQ pay rise this year, after the bankruptcy specialist upped its starter salaries from £145,000 to £150,000 in April, and later to £160,000 a year.
The pay hikes come as the crashing value of Britain’s currency has bolstered the pay of UK lawyers whose salaries are paid in US dollars.
The arrival of high-paying US law firms in London’s market for legal services has in turn bolstered salaries across the sector, as British headquartered players have been forced to compete.
Founded by three New York copyright specialists in 1931, Weil Gotshal has grown to become one of the world’s 20 biggest law firms by revenue, in generating turnovers of more than £1bn each year.
Weil Gotshal opened its London offices 1996, as part of wave of US firms that set up shop in the UK’s capital in the 1990s, including the law firm’s top paying rivals, Latham & Watkins and Kirkland & Ellis.
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