Macfarlanes’ partner pay outstrips Magic Circle’s in surging to highs of almost £2.5m
Partners at ‘Silver Circle’ law firm Macfarlanes are set to receive payouts worth almost £2.5m this year, after profits at the City firm surged.
The bumper payouts mean partners at Macfarlanes will be handed sums worth significantly more than those paid out to top lawyers at London’s elite Magic Circle firms.
Partners at the City law firm – which has just two offices, in London and Brussels – will be handed £2.484m each, a 19.1 per cent increase on last year, after the firm’s operating profit jumped 15.4 per cent.
The news comes after partners at Clifford Chance last week saw their pay packets surge to record highs, as the Magic Circle firm’s profit per equity partner payments surpassed £2m for the first time in the law firm’s history.
Macfarlanes told Morning Wire it will also up pay for its newly qualified (NQ) lawyers to sums of £107,500 plus bonuses, which this year will be paid out a firmwide rate of 11.23 per cent.
The pay hikes – which put Macfarlane’s NQ salaries on par with Magic Circle law firms Allen & Overy and Linklaters – come as the firm said it will be taking on 23 of its 25 freshly qualified trainees.
Set up in London in 1875, Macfarlanes, now based in Farringdon, is best known for its private wealth practice and its work on behalf of high-net worth individuals (HNWIs).
The firm, which has reputation for formality, is considered to be one of London’s Silver Circle firms alongside Travers Smith and Mishcon de Reya.
Although Silver Circle firms traditionally have much lower turnovers than their Magic Circle counterparts, those firms in the Silver Circle traditionally hand out significantly higher sums to their partners than London’s most prestigious law firms.