Figures show many in-house lawyers suffered pay freezes
Pay freezes affected nearly one quarter of in-house lawyers in the last year, with senior in-house counsel most likely to suffer.
Figures from Incomes Data Services (IDS) show 30% of heads of legal had their salaries frozen, up from 13% in 2012, while pay freezes doubled overall on the previous year.
Nevertheless, the average salary for heads of legal rose 2.3% to £138,000, with one company paying its head lawyer nearly £500,000.
Conversely, the average pay increases for all in-house lawyers falling from 2.7% last year to 2.4% this year.
On average, in-house solicitors earn £47,261, legal advisers earn £56,695, senior legal advisers earn £76,171, and deputy general counsel earn £95,450.
Nasreen Rahman, assistant editor at IDS, says a number of organisations are currently recruiting to their in-house teams and have had no “major headache” finding suitably qualified lawyers.
Bonuses for heads of legal were as high as 120% of basic salary, but averaged £26,825. The average bonus for solicitors was £3,318.
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