Legal Business: Eleonora Wäktare on How the NQ Pay War Impacts Partners

Legal Business reported this week that two more Magic Circle firms have bolstered pay for newly qualified attorneys as the battle for talent between Magic Circle and U.S. firms wages on. Eleonora Wäktare, a Managing Director in London, offered insight into how the NQ pay wars can impact lawyers higher up the food chain.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

NQ salaries offered by the UK elite may remain an attractive offering for budding lawyers, but progression opportunities and remuneration post the NQ stage do not always match up.

As Wäktare observed: ‘There is transparency in the market concerning the salaries of the newly qualified. What is less clear is how does it look further on, when lawyers become more senior, when they have four, five, six years’ PQE? When they are reaching the stage where they are senior but not partner yet?’

As Wäktare explained, it is at this point well trained Magic Circle associates again become attractive pickings for US firms, who can offer much higher salaries, and better development prospects for those eyeing the partner tract.

Pay issues spiral upwards. Wäktare noted that partners, although not exclusively those from the Magic Circle, have approached her because their firms are ‘not competitive on associate compensation’. This leaves partners unable to attract the best associate talent and build out their business practices.

She added: ‘Associate compensation can be seen in isolation, but it should also be seen in the wider picture of what’s the impact on the practice development for a partner.’

 We encourage you to read the article in full here: ‘After Lehman collapsed, salaries still went up’: Magic Circle NQ pay rises as market cools