Slaughter and May has become the fourth member of the magic circle to freeze pay for all staff.

The firm’s announcement today (2 April) comes three days after Clifford Chance announced it will freeze pay. Fellow magic circle firms Allen & Overy and Freshfields announced pay freezes earlier this year.

Slaughter and May executive partner Graham White said the firm was responding to pressures on its clients, who are ‘taking steps to reduce their costs’.

‘Our clients have many pressures on them to reduce their costs base, so we thought we would reduce our costs too,’ he said. ‘We did give pay rises to our lawyers back in November, so it’s not been a whole year without pay increases.’

The firm has 130 partners and 800 lawyers among its 1,200 global employees.