Freshfields sets down Magic Circle salary marker as it ups NQ lawyer pay 20% to £150k

Lots of misunderstanding here. Was not saying all FF do is mid market. Point was they do A LOOOOOT MORE of it compared to US firms, hence why they dominate on overall deal volume in EMEA.

At a top US firm your rates can often be too expensive when pitching for a lot of EMEA mid market deals given the significant price gap of legal advice between the US market and Europe. So this work lands with magic circle and FF who can outbid with an army of cheaper European salaried lawyers.

In a market environment like now with higher interest rates and uncertainty across elite PE, there are less deals to go around on the super premium side. As a US firm lawyer you’re expected to work more broadly and think on your feet – objective of a US firm is to constantly adapt by chasing whatever is the current rave for super premium clients. But this naturally means you may not get extreme mastery doing one specific work product. For example, as an FF M&A Associate you’re likely to do a lot SPA work on both seller and buyer side (and both for PE and strategic), while for a US firm you’re more likely to do just buyer side working for PE. A firm like FF will also have a much more varied knowledge base of English law precedents for you to get exposed to over time, given it’s been at the top of U.K. market for many decades and basically invented from scratch some of the agreements that are now market standard.

As one approaches Partnership and tries to build a business case, there is significant value in having extreme mastery of one type of work product, having seen 100s of examples of it from all angles the market has to offer. It’s not all you need to be a successful Partner but it will help you stand out at a US firm when making a move at a senior level, particularly if you are also good on the BD side (which is the skill most US firm lawyers are otherwise solely focused on).

This is why senior lawyers at firms like FF tend to be feeders to US firms growing out their London office – US firms have the better BD relationships with top PE houses from America but senior FF and other magic circle lawyers have more English law experience to service those clients on whatever particular niche type of deal they are currently excited by.

Magic circle lawyers have specialised on a narrower set of work product over and over again for both elite and smaller mid market clients.

also worth mentioning that FBD was in the top 10 firms for domestic US M&A last year – so is now out-competing most US firms in the US…