Nearly six out of 10 legal professionals had a pay rise last year – more than in the accountancy, IT and marketing professions – but only 37% of lawyers received a bonus.
Lawyers’ salaries rose at a faster rate than many other professionals in 2012, with contractors’ rates jumping 3.5 per cent, according to the Robert Walters' Salary Survey.
Permanent legal salaries rose 1.2 per cent in the year ending January 2013.
Those in the Midlands fared best, with an average 2.1 per cent rise.
By comparison, permanent salaries rose 0.3 per cent for IT professionals and 0.7 per cent for banking operations professionals, and fell 0.1 per cent for accountants.
The survey showed the legal in-house market was the main driver of growth – contract pay in the banking and financial services sector rose 8.5 per cent in the last year. Overall, in-house permanent salaries in London rose 1.7 per cent (compared to 0.2 per cent in private practice).
Colin Loth, director of legal recruitment at Robert Walters, said: “While the majority of permanent legal salaries have remained relatively stable, they have still increased and at a faster rate than many other professions.
“However, the most significant growth in pay over the past year has been for contractors. Where headcount restrictions have been implemented, businesses have often not had the expertise to carry out certain projects.
“Rather than outsourcing to a private practice firm, many have hired contractors to carry out this specialist work. With this likely to remain the case, we expect demand for temporary and fixed term contract lawyers to continue to grow throughout the first half of the year.”
