‘Nobody will want to feel like they are the poor cousin’: Freshfields reignites talent war with £150k NQ pay hike

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has broken ranks from its Magic Circle peers on associate salaries, increasing newly-qualified (NQ) pay from £125,000 to a new high of £150,000.   The move puts clear water between the firm and Slaughter and May, Linklaters, ‎A&O Shearman, and Clifford Chance, all which pay their NQ lawyers £125,000.

When the going gets tough – Global London firms dig in as market reality bites

With worldwide M&A activity down 17% last year, hitting a decade low, according to data from Refinitiv, 2023 was always going to be a more challenging year for US firms in London. And across the board, growth slowed as firms bucked the ‘stack ‘em high’ trend of recent years, exercising an increasingly cautious approach to …

Market forces: Paul Weiss, Kirkland and the war for London talent

In the contest for the biggest legal story of the moment, the A&O Shearman merger may be more transformational for the firms involved, but it is fair to say it has not quite captured the imagination like Paul Weiss’s dramatic and audacious hiring spree in London. ‘The question is whether a firm can genuinely build …

Legal Business Corporate and M&A Summit 2024

More than 150 of the City’s leading M&A partners, in-house counsel and representatives from corporates and financial institutions came together in mid-March to discuss the latest trends in M&A at the 2024 Legal Business Corporate and M&A Summit. The event, held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster and sponsored by Gibson Dunn, …