good point and a lot of law firms have already upped salaries for NQs/ trainees anyway and there's continued pressure to do so (also to narrow the gap with top US firms as well I guess but that's a topic for another day🤣)
TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2022-23
- Thread starter Jessica Booker
- Start date
- Status
yep agreed, but only to a degree. Although it is true most companies calculate salary based on take home it is a bit more nuanced than that with law firms I believe. Particularly US law firms who often base their UK salaries on the $215,000 US salary. Ultimately, they can tweak their "conversion rate" in order to adapt to IT changes.
Also have to consider often tax rises are across the board - so corporation tax is going back up for example and CGT. Firms may not be as willing/able to simply up the NQ salary in response to IT rise when they themselves have a higher tax burden. This will obviously impact lots of firms and their partners who have vested interests bc of PEP.
Jessica Booker
Legendary Member
TCLA Moderator
Gold Member
Graduate Recruitment
Premium Member
Forum Team
- Aug 1, 2019
- 13,471
- 19,260
Never really understood the fascination of benchmarking to US salaries - it hasn’t happened in other locations (eg comparative salaries to lawyers in Asia/Western Europe to London lawyers or vice versa).
mmmm, I think its the fact that US firms are happy to do it in London
Linkedin does show that lots of people qualify into MC and are off to STB or Kirkland by the end of the year
Jessica Booker
Legendary Member
TCLA Moderator
Gold Member
Graduate Recruitment
Premium Member
Forum Team
- Aug 1, 2019
- 13,471
- 19,260
WFW rejection post-AC. Applied for summer and did my AC on Jan 19 
Excuse me whilst I go eat my weight in party rings lolol
Excuse me whilst I go eat my weight in party rings lololGot a Sidley PFO post interview today... can't even join you with the party rings as I'm trying to be healthy and don't want to have negative progress in both my vac scheme applications AND my fitness today
WFW rejection post-AC. Applied for summer and did my AC on Jan 19
View attachment 4863
of course. Do you think the MC (particularly links + A&O) are losing talent to US firms? Or do you think "prestige" + "quality of training" is still winning for them?
Jessica Booker
Legendary Member
TCLA Moderator
Gold Member
Graduate Recruitment
Premium Member
Forum Team
- Aug 1, 2019
- 13,471
- 19,260
If they are, they are replacing them fairly easily (or maybe don’t even need to replace them - attrition is required after all). They also tend to pick up boomerang-ers further down the line too.
I think prestige and quality of training is a pull in the early stages of your career - less so when you become more autonomous and effectively can drive your own development a little more. There are a whole host of other reasons why people choose one type of firm over the other though, including salary.
Going back to the the salary difference in the US vs UK, it’s a very different calculation for US firms whose UK lawyers make up less than 10% of their workforce to those whose lawyers make up over 50% of their workforce. That’s why A&O won’t be matching their US salaries - their US lawyers are a minority compared to Kirkland where their US lawyers make up most of the workforce.
I really wasn’t gonna respond to this but seeing someone else comparing US and UK salaries just underlined how out of context this is.
The salary increases have partly been driven by US competition. In the US salaries are much higher and taxes lower but there is no general welfare system like in the UK.
Your student loan enabled you to go to uni, a privilege not all countries offer and are comparably lower and less harsh than in the US.
Your national insurance and general tax contribution pay towards pensions and the NHS and I think you should be proud to be in a system that distributes fundamental resources to people who need them because again, that is not the case in the US.
It’s really important to know what a privilege we have to be in a society like this and apply for jobs like that
The salary increases have partly been driven by US competition. In the US salaries are much higher and taxes lower but there is no general welfare system like in the UK.
Your student loan enabled you to go to uni, a privilege not all countries offer and are comparably lower and less harsh than in the US.
Your national insurance and general tax contribution pay towards pensions and the NHS and I think you should be proud to be in a system that distributes fundamental resources to people who need them because again, that is not the case in the US.
It’s really important to know what a privilege we have to be in a society like this and apply for jobs like that
Ah, sorry to hear thisGot a Sidley PFO post interview today... can't even join you with the party rings as I'm trying to be healthy and don't want to have negative progress in both my vac scheme applications AND my fitness today
I'm still waiting to hear back from Sidley full stop (post app - summer VS), I was wondering if they revealed where they are at in the recruitment process on your AC/any other communications you may have had with them?no idea, sorryAh, sorry to hear this
but I remember reading a post on here that said they would be getting back to people by end of february (not sure if that's for the spring scheme as I can't even remember which one i applied for!)will respond to this privately because I do not want to derail the forum.I really wasn’t gonna respond to this but seeing someone else comparing US and UK salaries just underlined how out of context this is.
The salary increases have partly been driven by US competition. In the US salaries are much higher and taxes lower but there is no general welfare system like in the UK.
Your student loan enabled you to go to uni, a privilege not all countries offer and are comparably lower and less harsh than in the US.
Your national insurance and general tax contribution pay towards pensions and the NHS and I think you should be proud to be in a system that distributes fundamental resources to people who need them because again, that is not the case in the US.
It’s really important to know what a privilege we have to be in a society like this and apply for jobs like that
You also need to consider how for some MC firms, US business is driving their profitability (Freshfields) and how these MC firms are just breaking into the market, so need to initially compete with the salaries that US firms offer to stand a chance of recruiting top talent.
Also agree with subsequent poster's point on where our tax cont's go/the obscene cost of living in US cities like NY/LA/SanFran
Hi all! If anyone has any experience with Arnold & Porter or has passed their application stage, can you please react to this post? thank you in advance
Jessica Booker
Legendary Member
TCLA Moderator
Gold Member
Graduate Recruitment
Premium Member
Forum Team
- Aug 1, 2019
- 13,471
- 19,260
Total tax burden for a new associate at A&O in New York will be about $72k once you factor in state taxes and Federal Income taxes.I really wasn’t gonna respond to this but seeing someone else comparing US and UK salaries just underlined how out of context this is.
The salary increases have partly been driven by US competition. In the US salaries are much higher and taxes lower but there is no general welfare system like in the UK.
Your student loan enabled you to go to uni, a privilege not all countries offer and are comparably lower and less harsh than in the US.
Your national insurance and general tax contribution pay towards pensions and the NHS and I think you should be proud to be in a system that distributes fundamental resources to people who need them because again, that is not the case in the US.
It’s really important to know what a privilege we have to be in a society like this and apply for jobs like that
One of the reasons their salaries are as high as they are is because they also have a fairly significant cut (about 35% of their salary to the UKs roughly 40%). Add in student loan repayments and 401(k) contributions and that will be probably be a lower % take home pay than the U.K. for most people.
- Status
Similar threads
- Sticky
- Sticky
- Locked
