Newly qualified lawyers at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer will now be paid £150,000 a year after the magic circle law firm boosted salaries. Lawyers who have finished their exams at the Anglo-German legal giant will be paid the new starting salaries at the end of their two-year training contract, an uplift of 20pc from the £125,000 paid in 2023. Trainees starting at the firm will see their pay packets jump from £50,000 to £56,000, whereas those who have been there for a year will now be paid £61,000. The increased salary puts them above most other magic circle firms including Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Linklaters, and Slaughter and May, who paid newly qualified lawyers £125,000 last year. It is the latest in a pay war between London firms and US rivals. American firm Gibson Dunn pays its lawyers £180,000 a year, more than five times the average salary. Last year, newly qualified lawyers could expect to make £125,000 at magic circle firms, more than three times the average UK salary of approximately £34,900, according to government data. New trainees could expect to make approximately £50,000 in top firms on average, rising to £55,000 after a year. But newly qualified lawyers...