HSF Kramer has become the latest law firm to increase pay for its junior talent in London, with its newly-qualified lawyers seeing their base salary rise to £145k.

Effective on 1 July 2025, the 7% rise from the firm’s previous £135k means that among UK firms, it sits behind only the international Magic Circle – Freshfields, Clifford Chance, A&O Shearman and Linklaters – all of which upped NQ pay to £150k last year. 

Jeremy Walden, who took over as HSF Kramer’s executive partner for UK and EMEA when the merger that created the firm went live at the start of last month, commented: “We invest in our people at every stage of their careers through a balanced and competitive reward structure. As one of the leading global law firms in today’s fast-moving market, this is important for us to be able to strengthen the experience we deliver to our clients, to maintain our firm’s culture and to ensure the firm’s continued success and growth.”

HSF Kramer’s salary rise continues a junior salary war that has seen repeated waves of pay increases on both sides of the Atlantic. Since mid-May, Hogan Lovells and Ashurst have announced increases to £140k, while DLA Piper has boosted pay to £130k, CMS to £120k, and Eversheds Sutherland to £110k. 

Pinsent Masons and Bird & Bird have also hiked their pay past £100k, to £105k and £102k respectively, as six-figure salaries for London NQs increasingly become the norm at top firms. 

UK firms, however, remain nowhere near the top of the market in London, where US firms dominate. 

In February, Willkie Farr & Gallagher bumped NQ salaries 5% to £170k, in the process joining the elite group of around 20 US firms that have raised pay for their London NQs to £170k or more.

Most of these firms pay between £170k and £175k, although Sullivan & Cromwell hands out £177k, and a quartet of firms – Davis Polk, Gibson Dunn, Paul Weiss and Quinn Emanuel – sit at the top of the market with an eye-watering £180k starting salary for associates.