All that glitters is at Gouldens as firm fuels salary war

City firm Gouldens is staying ahead in the pay war by bumping up salaries for newly qualified lawyers to 50,000.

Gouldens managing partner Charters Macdonald-Brown said the pay rises follow a Gouldens tradition.

'For many years now, Gouldens has paid its solicitors and trainees more than any other firm of UK solicitors,' he said.

One-year qualifieds at Gouldens will earn 55,000, rising to 65,000 a year later.

From this month, Gouldens trainees are being offered starting pay of 30,000.

The firm has a famously unconventional training system which sees trainees given their own offices, treated as normal fee-earners from the start, and doing work from across the firm, rather than rotating between departments.

This year, the leading City firms, led by Clifford Chance, entered a new league of pay by hiking salaries for newly qualified lawyers to more than 40,000.

Allen & Overy and Slaughter and May recently went up to 45,000.

None of the leading firms have ruled out further pay hikes, but there are signs that the market is settling in the US, which prompted the first wave of unprecedented rises.

Anne Mizzi