The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, has just had a pay rise. As of 1 November, he is £2,025 a year better off, his salary having jumped by just under 1% to £230,400, representing the second stage of a review worth an average of 2.4% for the judiciary. Both the quantity and the rise are drops in the ocean compared to the pay packages partners at the leading firms have been awarding themselves in recent years.
Paltry judicial pay – at least compared to what is on offer at the leading City firms – was cited by some as one reason why the plan by the last Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, to allow judges to return to private practice was a good idea, as Clifford Chance litigator Simon Davis agreed.
