Linklaters confirmed yesterday that it will be joining the domino line of firms lifting their base salary for first-year associates to $180,000 per year. The firm’s announcement follows in the footsteps of Magic Circle contemporaries Allen & Overy, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Clifford Chance, which have all already pledged to match Cravath’s salaries for their associates. With the new salary for New York first-years now the equivalent of £124,000, Linklaters’ stateside lawyers will now be paid considerably more than their City counterparts across the Atlantic, where NQ lawyers’ salaries were raised from £68,500 to £81,000 in March. 

Sources: Legal Business; Lawyer2B