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Lawyers Place Third in London Pay Rankings
Legal Week
July 11, 2008
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The average City lawyer rakes in 572,800 pounds ($1.13 million) a year, ranking them in third place behind traders and bankers as the top earners in
Average earnings in the City rank the legal profession as the third-best payer, behind traders, who pocket an average of 1.45 million pounds ($2.86 million) a year, and bankers, who earn just over the 1 million pound ($1.98 million) mark, according to research carried out by The Route City wealth club.
The salaries compare to an average across the top 10 highest paying sectors of 534,400 pounds ($1.05 million).
The report shows bonuses in the legal profession can reach up to 32 percent of annual salary, compared with traders who could expect to take home a performance-related bonus worth 82 percent of their wage.
According to the research, the peak earning age for legal professionals is 36-40 years old, when they can expect to take home an average or 630,000 pounds ($1.24 million). Over their working life span, lawyers can expect to take home a total of more than 10 million pounds ($19.8 million).
However, managing director of The Route, Mark Worrall, pointed out: "Many of our members work in intensely pressurized careers that have a relatively short life-span with only 20 'peak-earning' years, and are very focused on performance-related bonuses.
"So while they have the opportunity to earn more than half a million a year, this part of their working life generally does not last very long. Most are facing retirement at 45-50 years' old -- thus it is vital that they manage the income from their hard work well."
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