Camerons, Weil and Links associates also back pay and bonus

Slaughter and May has emerged as the firm with the most satisfied associates when it comes to salaries and bonuses, according to Legal Week research.

Slaughters associates have put the firm at the top of a table grading firms on their combined remuneration packages, marginally ahead of CMS Cameron McKenna.

The rankings form part of Legal Week Intelligence's 2009 Employee Satisfaction Survey, which gauged the perceptions of more than 4,000 associates at top 75 law firms in England and Wales and the top 10 US firms in London.

Slaughters is one of a number of City firms which operates a bonus scheme based on salary, without any billable hours targets. The firm amended its scheme to bring in a firmwide bonus paying out 10% of base salary in November 2008.

Its position in the rankings, which comes despite this year matching City moves to freeze salaries, could have been boosted by the fact it has not made any redundancies.

The research found that of the 74 responding Slaughters associates, not one indicated they were looking for another job, compared with more than 10% at its magic circle rivals.

Slaughters senior partner, Chris Saul said: "We aim to pay competitive base salaries and our attitude to bonuses has been to award a flat percentage rate for all associates – an approach which reflects their contribution on a collective basis. It is good to see that there is a positive reaction to our remuneration policies."

Second-placed Camerons bases its salary bands on a range of criteria and operates time-recognition targets for bonuses.

Nigel Moore, Camerons partner in charge of HR, said: "We take people seriously. I have been here for over 20 years and one of the reasons is that we treat people well and continue to put huge effort into doing that."

Dewey & LeBoeuf and Weil Gotshal & Manges had the strongest showing of the US firms, coming in third and fourth place respectively, with Linklaters coming fifth.

Overall, however, satisfaction with bonuses at major law firms generally remains low.

DLA Piper, Walker Morris, Hill Dickinson, Halliwells and Irwin Mitchell make up the lowest scoring firms.

The results are drawn from the 190-page Employee Satisfaction Survey, an annual report produced by Legal Week's independent research arm.