Gideon Moore, Linklaters

Linklaters managing partner Gideon Moore has expressed his firm's frustration with the industry's pay war, which has caused almost every top U.K. firm to increase newly qualified lawyer remuneration packages to £100,000 or more.

Moore, who was re-elected for a second term as managing partner in March, told Legal Week: "If there are future hikes, they won't be coming from Linklaters."

Seemingly taking aim at arch rival Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which sparked the pay war among U.K. firms back in May, Moore commented: "You have to ask the people who started this process what exactly they expected to achieve from it."

Linklaters was the last Magic Circle firm to follow suit, which Moore claimed was "for good reason".

He said: "This was because a) we didn't need it and b) if we were to follow it, we wanted it to be for reasons we understood."

However, he added that the firm would always look to remain competitive in the market for talent.

"At the end of the day, what we felt we couldn't do was give ourselves and the talent who join a reason not to prioritise us over our immediate competitors."

In response, Freshfields released a statement saying: "Our decision to increase associate salaries with effect from May 1 reflects our continued commitment to attracting and retaining the very best talent in the legal market.

"Our pay offering is a critical part of our talent strategy and we regularly review our compensation and benefits across the firm with this in mind."

The ongoing pay war has affected multiple tiers of the legal industry. Magic Circle firms including Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy and Slaughter and May have all raised their salaries to more than £100,000 including bonuses, while other leading UK law firms such as Ashurst and Simmons & Simmons have more recently followed suit.

Even within the mid-market, firms such as Pinsent Masons and Stephenson Harwood have also hiked salaries to £72,500 and £75,000 respectively as a result of stiff competition.

However, Moore's comments reflect growing discontentment at a variety of firms over the change, with many privately complaining that the rises were neither welcome nor necessary. But others say Freshfields was simply responding to the rates paid by U.S. firms in London, which remain a long way ahead.