Equity partners at SME law firms in UK earn less than salaried partners

Partners at some small UK law firms are seeing no increase in pay despite an uptick in the country’s economy.

They are making less than salaried partners as well as fee-earners according to new research by accountants Booth Ainsworth.

In some cases partners are charging as little as £50 an hour although there was an overall improvement in financial performance this year, with more than half of firms reporting growith at around ten per cent.

The Legal Financial Benchmarking Survey 2015 asked 127 SME law firms across England and Wales and Scotland.

Firms were divided into three groups: those with an annual fee income of less than half a million pounds, those with one up to £1.5 million and those with one over £1.5m.

The survey found the highest charge-out rate for partners to be £340 an hour and £295 for fee-earners.

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