Linklaters has become the latest law firm to remove the ‘lockstep’ payroll type

Linklaters has become the latest law firm to reduce its pay-per-view approach to “Lockstep” to its peers, taking on the fierce competition to attract and retain top talent by providing bigger checks to the best performers.

In an email to employees Wednesday viewed by the Financial Times, Aedamar Comiskey, A senior colleague, and Paul Lewis, co-manager, said the “magic circle” company is changing its payroll globally to increase the amount of money it can provide to “partners who provide specialized care”.

About 500 of the company’s partners also voted to help the company “speed up the friends who are most supportive,” said the email, meaning young people have seen their earnings rise sharply if they beat their peers.

Linklaters, whose clients include Unilever, British-American tobacco and NatWest, is one of London’s leading magic circles that traditionally uses a mechanism to shut down the way their top counterparts are paid the same, regardless of their performance.

His idea was announced a few days after New York Cravath company, Swaine & Moore, one of the last closed-door shutters, he also adjusted his payment system rewarding affiliates according to their suitability.

£ 1.77m

Medium income of affiliates in the last financial year

UK companies have been forced to retain their star-studded counterparts as U.S. rivals continue to head to London and offer huge bonuses and “eat what you kill” to star representatives.

Two other magical companies, Allen & Overy and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, have moved to alternative payment systems. last year.

Linklaters, which has more than 5,000 employees in 21 countries, believes such changes will help boost its investment in the most profitable areas and grow its business in the US, Comiskey and Lewis said.

The company, whose partners were paid around $ 1.77m in the last financial year, has also been given “more flexibility to select our top talent from the previous contract”, he added.

Urban companies have been waging a wage war to retain youth talent, while newly graduated lawyers are being paid. more than $ 200,000 in other companies. Cravath’s best friends bonuses reached $ 115,000 this year.