Remuneration: average in-house pay and bonuses in north-west also on the rise


A growing number of City lawyers are moving in-house on temporary or fixed-term contracts to gain valuable CV-building experience, research has revealed.



A survey of candidates by recruitment agency Robert Walters also found that permanent positions in the financial services sector continue to attract magic-circle lawyers, with the lack of secondment opportunities cited by many as a motivation for moving. The research showed that lawyers with strong regulatory backgrounds are in great demand.



Chris Hickey, managing director of legal and compliance at Robert Walters, said it was only in the last 12 months that private practice lawyers willing to accept the risk of a fixed-term contract at a FTSE 250 company had come on to his radar. 'It's not a huge trend, but it is significant'.



The company's research also revealed that by moving to a rival company, particularly in the energy and telecoms sectors, in-house lawyers could secure an increase in their annual package of as much as 30%.



However, the combination of the increasing attractions of working in-house and some aggressive hiring by US law firms forced leading City practices to revise their salary structures in 2006 in a bid to compete. A lawyer with four years' post-qualification experience (PQE) can now expect to earn between £70,000 and £96,000, up from £58,000 to £80,000 in 2005.



A separate salary survey carried out in the north-west, meanwhile, contained mixed news for the in-house sector.



Recruitment company BCL Legal found that average salaries had risen across the board since last year by between 1% and 9%, with the average bonus also climbing from £8,500 to almost £10,000.



But there was a less positive trend when it came to maximum salaries. Remuneration at the upper end of the scale - from four years' PQE onwards - has fallen by as much as £18,000.



Mark Levine, BCL Legal's director of in-house, said average salaries were definitely increasing in the north-west and that those particular figures could be trusted. 'Maximum salaries, on the other hand, can be distorted by [the pay of] very few individuals.'



He added that the region's biggest challenge was to find and place suitably experienced newly qualified commercial lawyers.



Martyn Rodmell, group legal counsel at Princes Food in Liverpool and chairman-elect of the Law Society's Commerce & Industry Group, said: 'In-house is a very vibrant sector, with new opportunities presenting themselves all the time.'



Jonathan Rayner