City firms consider cash handouts to lure recruits

Leading City law firms say they would consider paying graduate trainees a 'golden hello' if one of their rivals took the plunge first.

Clifford Chance, Slaughter and May, Linklaters, Eversheds, Norton Rose, Simmons & Simmons, Herbert Smith, DLA, Richards Butler, Berwin Leighton and Taylor Joynson Garrett all took part in an Association of Graduate Recruitment (AGR) survey that revealed one in five companies is now luring graduates with a lump sum cash incentive to join.Clifford Chance's London managing partner, Peter Charlton, slammed Andersen Consulting's decision to pay graduates 10,000 to join, saying it 'smacked of desperation'.

But he admitted: 'If everybody was doing it, we would consider it.

I don't think we would want to lead the charge on this because it's what I would call a rather sledgehammer approach to something which is actually quite a subtle issue because it is more than just money.'

SJ Berwin was the first UK law firm to announce it was planning to give newly qualified solicitors unprecedented pay rises, a move that was followed by Clifford Chance and then the rest of the City.

Senior partner David Harrel said: 'At the moment we think what we are offering is reasonably attractive, but I could see if I was sharing a flat with someone who had been offered 10,000 to join a company, I would be asking law firms the question.'

Herbert Smith's personnel head, John Lucy, said Herbert Smith might join them on the golden hello bandwagon.

Anne Mizzi