Whether you’re thinking about your next career move or simply want to understand how your salary compares to your peers, our 2025 Salary Guides are here to provie you with clarity and confidence.
This year, we’ve surveyed 1,000 lawyers across the North West, Yorkshire and the Midlands about their pay, benefits, working patterns, and more—making this our biggest and most comprehensive survey to date. We’ve combined that data with insight from our specialist recruiters to create a guide for each practice area, giving you a clear picture of what’s really happening in your market.
Here are some of the key headlines…
📈 Salary increases are still happening—just more selectively
Fewer firms are offering big across-the-board pay rises, but targeted increases are still common, especially where retention is a concern. Our data shows that most lawyers who received a salary bump while staying put got between 0–5%. The lawyers who saw the biggest jumps? Those who moved firms.
💰 What’s ‘market rate’ is no longer one-size-fits-all
The days of a fixed salary band per PQE level are gone. Flexibility, culture and location now play just as big a role in salary expectations as experience does—and there are huge differences between firm types. We’ve also seen a sharp rise in counter-offers, as employers aim to retain top talent without overhauling internal pay scales.
🏠 Hybrid working is here to stay
Most lawyers in our survey work from home around two days a week, with hybrid working now seen as a standard benefit—especially in personal injury, private client and commercial litigation. If your working pattern still isn’t flexible, you might be missing out.
🛣️ Commute times are stretching—for the right reasons
Lawyers are increasingly willing to travel further when it means better salaries, flexibility or progression. But we’re also seeing many reduce their commuting days thanks to more generous hybrid policies.
💼 Practice area insights vary
Personal injury: Salaries are rising fast at junior levels, with growing demand in clinical negligence and catastrophic injury.
Private client & Court of Protection: Pay varies widely. Court of Protection lawyers are in demand and able to command a premium.
Family: Pay remains heavily split between public and private work—with notable inflation at 3–5 PQE.
Litigation: NQ pay is still climbing, trickling into the regional and high street space.
Property: Salary growth has slowed since the SDLT boom, but conveyancers with experience remain in high demand.
Get the full picture for your practice area
Our 2025 Salary Guides are designed to help you benchmark your current pay, plan your next step, and have better-informed conversations with your employer—whether you’re actively job searching or not.
Download your free salary guide below.
Or, if you’d like a tailored salary benchmarking chat with one of our specialists, you can contact our practice area specialists.
Because in a shifting market, it pays to be informed.
