In a clear signal that the economic downturn has hit the City firms, it emerged this month that Clifford Chance is cutting back its assistant salary bands and making a number of assistants redundant at its London HQ.
The world’s largest law firm announced that it is to cut its pay rates for newly-qualified lawyers from the standard benchmark of £50,000 to £48,000 from this September with equivalent across the board cuts to all assistant pay bands. Estimates are that the firm will save £2m per annum as a result of the move.
