Clifford Chance has become the first of London’s ‘magic circle’ law firms to breach the £2million pay barrier for its partners.
The firm paid its senior partners £2.04million each for the year to the end of April, an annual increase of 10 per cent, outstripping its rival Allen & Overy which last week revealed it hiked average partner salaries to just under £2million.
The increase is also above the rate of inflation, which is at a 40-year high of 9.1 per cent and is predicted to surpass 11 per cent by October.
Record pay: City law firm Clifford Chance has become the first of London’s ‘magic circle’ law firms to breach the £2m pay barrier for its partners
Clifford Chance reported its seventh consecutive year of record profits, which climbed 9 per cent to £783million while revenues jumped 8 per cent to £1.97billion.
The company said its corporate advisory practices, as well as its financial markets team, saw ‘significant peaks’ in activity levels during the year.
This was after the relaxation of lockdown restrictions introduced during the pandemic sparked a boom in deal-making across global markets, allowing corporate lawyers and investment banks to rake in billions in fees.
Charles Adams, global managing partner, said the pay rises were a result of ‘the energy, dedication, teamwork and phenomenal expertise of all our colleagues’, noting that all of the company’s regions had reported profit growth.
But the results did not include the impact of Clifford Chance’s decision to shut its offices in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, which is likely to have weighed on the business in its financial year.
Adams did not say whether the firm planned to reopen its Moscow office if the situation improved.
The company was also tight-lipped about rumours it may abandon its global headquarters in London’s Canary Wharf after announcing in February it was considering a reduction in the size of its office following the boom in home working.
The pay rises from both Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy mean eyes will turn to rival magic circle firms Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, who report their own results in the coming weeks.
Last year, Linklaters paid its partners an average of £1.77million while Freshfields paid £1.91million.
Slaughter and May, the final member of the magic circle, does not disclose its pay.
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