Norton Rose Fulbright boosts newly qualified pay by £1,500 to £63,000

Norton Rose Fulbright has raised salaries for its newly qualified (NQ) lawyers by £1,500, alongside the announcement of a 92% retention rate for this September’s trainee intake.

The new NQ salary, which came into effect at the start of 1 July this year but has been backdated to 1 May, has seen pay boosted to £63,000 from £61,500.

The new rate compares favourably with the magic circle, all of which pay their NQs between £61,500 and £64,000, with the exception of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where ‘foundation’ level associates (NQ to one year post-qualification) receive between £65,000 and £72,500.

Meanwhile, salaries for first and second year trainees at Norton Rose Fulbright have remained static at £38,000 and £43,000 respectively. The firm’s associate salaries were last reviewed in May last year, when NQ pay was increased from £60,000 to £61,500. At the same time, first-year trainee pay went up £1,000 from £37,000 to £38,000, alongside a rise of £1,500 for second years.

The newly merged firm has also confirmed an NQ retention rate of 92% after offering 24 of its 26 autumn qualifiers a role at the firm, with all accepting. The rate is significantly up on the same point in the previous year, when legacy Norton Rose saw 78% of its qualifying trainees stay on at the firm out of an intake of 23.