Pay wars used to happen because the best law firms upped their salaries forcing everyone else to do the same. But this current market has gone way beyond that. No one is immune from the struggle to retain talent anymore. Not the biggest and best law firms. Not even the richest firms.

Since the start of December we have seen Kirkland & Ellis, the world's largest firm by revenue, shorten the amount of time it takes for lawyers to qualify to join its equity partnership – a move widely viewed as offering the firm a selling point to juniors.