SG KE Salary Hikes in USA Ensure Legal Process Outsourcing Flourishes
The Los Angeles Daily Journal announced in their
March 19 issue that pay scales for first-year attorneys rose yet again,
with a number of firms hitting a staggering $160,000 starting salary.
In the UK, the situation is much the same. The Lawyer.com reported that
Linklaters is expected to heat up the pay war with an increase in its
associate salaries of around 16 percent, to £69,000. The expected hike
would push Linklaters ahead of Clifford Chance in the battle to win
over top-flight graduates with lucrative starting salaries.
Unsurprisingly, the remaining “magic circle” firms are currently
“reviewing their salaries”.
Is it just me or does anyone else
have a sense of “keeping up with the Joneses” going on here? Why do
firms feel such enormous pressure to match each other in junior
associate pay? The reason is because they are all trying to compete for
the same pool of top talent. The competition for available talent is
only going to become even more intense as 75 million baby boomers will
soon give way to around 30 million generation X-ers. Although its seems
incredulous right now given the preponderance of law school graduates,
various studies indicate that there will be a shortage of around 14
million skilled workers in the US by 2020.
