Barristers' chambers puts its trainees on £60,000 a year

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One commercial barristers' chambers is known to be offering the sum - £15,000 more than its rivals - to four students.

They are believed to be 23 or 24 years old and will start a two-year training period next October. This year pupils at the chambers, One Essex Court in the Temple, are being paid £45,000.

The sum far outstrips pay offered by other commercial chambers, with pupils at Fountain Court and 38 Essex Street getting £40,000. The Law Society said the average trainee salary was £23,865.

Darren Burrows, senior clerk at the chambers, told The Times: "We already attract the very best and you could say 'Why increase the award?' We feel this will ensure that our rewards remain at the top end and that they reflect the very high quality of people we recruit.

"It is a very small investment when you consider what they will be capable of earning in future years."

The £60,000 offer far outstrips those offered in similar legal positions. Even the top corporate law firms are paying their trainee solicitors less than this, ranging from about £30,000 a year to nearly £40,000. Freshfields, one of the top five corporate law firms, pays its trainees £39,000.

On qualifying, starting salaries can be almost double these figures, with many law firms paying more than £60,000 and American law firms based in London even more: Debevoise & Plimpton pays £82,000 a year to its newly qualified lawyers.