International expansion of US firms has had a profound impact on legal salaries across the globe. US practices represent the top of the market in lawyer renumeration in all the legal markets we analysed. As mid-sized and domestic incumbents navigate the challenges of talent retention in this context, some look to alternative locations with lower average salaries and often lower real estate costs.
In the UK, where the influx of US firms has transformed the London legal market, many of the British counterparts look to secondary cities such as Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow when considering office growth strategies, where legal salaries are, on average, 47% lower.
A similar trend is seen in Australia, where some look to Brisbane and Melbourne, rather than Sydney, when bolstering practices. In all cases, firms continue to have prestigious addresses in the main legal markets. Elsewhere in Asia Pacific, global law firms are pushing up salaries in markets such as Singapore, where nearshoring may become an attractive strategy to reduce overhead costs; legal salaries in Kuala Lumpur, for example, are 84% lower than those of Singapore.
In the US, firms have responded to the post-pandemic migration of talent and business opportunities by expanding into cities that previously had minimal Am Law 100 presence (the ranking of top 100 legal firms). Key growth markets include Miami, Tampa, Salt Lake City, Austin, Houston, and Dallas. Lower salaries may also be an additional factor considered in their location strategy.