It certainly wasn’t a forgone conclusion but Linklaters set the agenda for the City pay round today (30 April) when it confirmed that it was lifting its salary bands for assistants for the financial year to come. The rise, which varies from nearly 4% for trainees and newly-qualifieds to around 2% for first, second and third year-qualified lawyers, is obviously a far cry from the double-digit percentage awards dished out by leading law firms in 2006 and 2007.
But it was by no means certain there would be any increase in the bands at all this year given the drop in work levels and the gloomier global outlook (indeed, Linklaters partners weren’t even sure there would be a rise last week). The reasoning went that assistants would largely earn above-inflation annual rises under the assistant track and so it made sense to keep the bands unchanged.
