When you start looking more granularly, it becomes more revealing. For example, new lawyers in the US have a bimodal distribution of income. Most new lawyers make very little money. Then there are a lot of graduates from top schools who start at very high salaries. This can distort the comparison if just relying on averages or medians. If we equalize the comparison and look at two similar entry level lawyer positions at comparable firms—one in the UK, one in America—we can get a real comparison.
Freshfields is a magic circle British firm. Its
newly qualified solicitors make 125,000 pounds per year (before taxes) which currently equals about 170,000 dollars. A first year associate at a comparable American white shoe law firm on the Cravath scale (i.e. most big law firms) will make 215,000 dollars per year. And that's generally independent of the city in which they're practicing, whereas most of these top positions in the UK are in London. So the same salary in America will be paid to a first year associate whether they're in Houston or LA, but will go further when it's being paid to the lawyer working in Texas, where there's no state income tax and the cost of living is much lower.
So for two relatively equal, entry level legal positions at top firms in the UK and America, the baseline difference in pay is at least 50,000 dollars before adding in taxes and cost of living (and bonuses). When we throw in those factors, it's closer to 100,000. That's a huge difference that is solely based on being in the UK vs. America. In some cases, like with Freshfields, there are offices in both the UK and America, which makes the difference even starker.
