Burges Salmon has increased its trainee and newly qualified solicitor (NQ) salaries, with what is believed to be a market-topping £68,000 in Edinburgh.
In its home town of Bristol, first-year trainee pay rose from £44,000 to £47,000 as of 1 September, with second years getting a boost from £46,000 to £49,000. NQs will get £72,000, up from 68,000.
In the firm’s Scottish office, however, first-year trainee pay has risen from £34,000 to £40,000 and second-year wages from £36,000 to £42,000.
Edinburgh NQ salaries, meanwhile, rise from £63,000 to £68,000. This overhauls the £65,000 offered by Dentons and is believed to be the highest in Scotland.
Burges Salmon isn’t the only firm to have upped its regional salaries recently. Indeed, Addleshaw Goddard has also increased NQ rates in Scotland, this time by 9 per cent from £56,000 to £61,000.
Addleshaw’s new pay puts the firm a step ahead of Shoosmiths and Pinsent Masons, both of which raised their NQ salaries to £97,000 in London and £63,000 in the regions as of September 2024.
Elsewhere, Squire Patton Boggs increased its NQ pay last week. The US firm will hike NQ salaries from £100,000 to £110,000 in London at the start of 2025, while NQs in the firm’s regional offices in Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester will get an increase of around 8 per cent, from £65,000 to £70,000.
