Los Angeles heavyweights O’Melveny & Myers and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher have hiked US starting salaries by $10,000 (£5,600) to $135,000 (£76,400) as pay pressure builds in the closely-watched US labour market for lawyers.

The West Coast duo have raised starting salaries this month from the established benchmark of $125,000 (£70,700) to $135,000 across all of their US offices including, symbolically, New York.