Articles From the Team

The intrinsically beautiful relationship between pay and performance

One of my clients, Clyde & Co recently announced that they are overhauling their Associate career paths in a bid to further tighten the important link between pay and individual performance. As recruiters we spend a goodly proportion of our day talking to disgruntled and overworked lawyers, we know only too well how important this relationship is to a lawyer on the often slippery ladder to the top.

This change leaves only one Top 20 firm that does not base lawyers salaries on merit (I will refrain from naming them, but they are at the very top!) and sees Clyde & Co move further away from post qualification experience (PQE) as the measure for pay. It has allowed them to put into place a much fairer and meritocratic framework for Associate career paths, with a focus on identifiable targets and key performance indicators.

Clyde & Co have said that they will continue to work on their scheme over the years and make certain that they ‘incentivise and reward the correct ways of working’. This is clearly the right basis for progress within any firm, not just a law firm and I am sure that in years to come the PQE framework will be viewed with the same mild, historic horror as my children watching a black and white film.

If you would like to know more then please visit our website BCL Legal.