Several top commercial barristers' chambers are set to increase their pupillage salaries dramatically.

Leading the way is One Essex Court, which will pay each of its four new recruits commencing pupillage in October 2010 a salary of £60,000 – a 33% increase on the £45,000 award that the set's pupils currently receive.

The move follows Essex Court Chambers' decision to increase its pupillage salary from £40,000 to £55,000 from October 2010. Wilberforce Chambers, meanwhile, will up what it pays its pupils from 2011 by £8,000 to £48,000.

The rises come in the context of a major recent upturn in commercial litigation. Wilberforce clerk Danny Smillie said the junior end of the commercial Bar was "the busiest it has been for 20 years."

Commenting on the increase, which follows a number of years of pupillage salaries remaining relatively constant, One Essex Court senior clerk Darren Burrows said:

"It was important to ensure that we remained at the top end of the market – and is line with our policy to take the very best people."

Such salaries are in marked contrast with those paid out to pupils at the criminal Bar, where many chambers offer the minimum pupillage award of £10,000 per year.

Trainees at the leading law firms can earn up to £40,000 – increasing to up to £96,000 upon qualification – although several firms, including Weil Gotshal & Manges and Addleshaw Goddard, have reduced junior lawyer remuneration packages of late.

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