Norton Rose has increased salaries for trainees and newly-qualified lawyers and confirmed that junior lawyers will soon be able to spend some of their training contracts in Australia for the first time.

The City firm has pushed the starting salary for first year trainees up from £37,000 to £38,000, while those in their second year will see pay rise by £1,500 to £43,000.

Salaries for newly-qualified lawyers (NQs) have increased from £60,000 to £61,500 as part of review, with all of the changes taking effect from May this year.

Separately Norton Rose has confirmed that from October London trainees will be able to spend four months of their training contract in Australia, with the firm opening up its rotation programme to Sydney and Perth for the first time.

Two London trainees are expected to go to Australia, with two Australian lawyers coming over London.

To date Norton Rose's rotation programme has enabled London trainees to spend four months of their two-year contract in one of the firm's international offices in Asia, the Middle East or Europe.

Head of recruitment Sarah Kelly said: "From October, the London trainee rotation program will open up so that trainees can spend a seat in one of our Australian offices for the first time – and Australian graduates will be able to gain valuable experience in our London or Asia offices. This will further strengthen our knowledge, skill base and cultural alignment across the international business.

"Australia is closely integrated into the business and global mobility has been integral to achieving that. In the last year alone, the Australian practice had 39 outbound international placements and 38 inbound placements from overseas."