Ropes & Gray has boosted pay for its newly qualified (NQ) UK associates by 4% to £120,000 plus bonus. The firm's previous first-year associate basic rate was £115,000.

Ropes did not announce details of pay for those London associates with more than first-year experience.

Its increase for NQ lawyers is the first to be announced this calendar year and follows a pay war last summer between major firms as they moved to match the rises announced by New York-based Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

In August, Dechert raised salaries for its London NQ lawyers by 16% from £95,000 to £110,000 and in September, Dentons increased its first-year rate by 7% from £70,000 to £75,000.

In the UK, Slaughter and May announced that it was boosting NQ pay by £3,000 to £83,000, a few months after DLA Piper said it would boost first-year salaries by £2,000 to £77,000.

Other US firms, including Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins and Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, also increased their rates for UK associates to match US counterparts on $190,000. These rises equated to £143,000 when they were initially announced.