Salary benchmarks
DLA Piper Salary 2026: Associate Scale, Bonus and Partner Pay
A general counsel matching this firm in 2026 is matching a US class-year grid last printed for 2025, a London newly qualified print reset in July, or a local desk whose figure is older or unpublished. This page prints the dated tables and shows what belongs on a company offer.
Pick the desk before you pick the dollar.
A general counsel who types DLA Piper salary into a 2026 budget in London is matching a newly qualified print of £140,000, not a global lockstep. Sartori's London interview cohort (750 structured interviews) is the research base behind that read.
Above the Law published the firm’s 24 December 2024 US memo for calendar 2025: class of 2024 at $225,000 through class of 2017 and senior at $435,000. That is the last public DLA Piper associate salary grid in dollars. A 2025 memo. Not a 2026 lockstep.
Three public tables answer the same query. A general counsel who matches the wrong one loses the shortlist; a solicitor who quotes the wrong one walks into a compensation committee that has not named the desk. The dated comparison is below.
- $4.583B
- Am Law 100 2026 gross revenue, rank 3, for 2025 performance
- Above the Law, 15 April 2026
- $310k–$420k
- Pay-transparency range on a US capital-markets associate posting dated 29 August 2026
- NIRI reprint of the firm JD, 29 August 2026
- 12 days
- Median offer-to-acceptance on Sartori's London associate desk
- Sartori mandate telemetry, trailing 36 months
- 35%
- Counter-offer incidence on that same London associate line
- Sartori mandate telemetry, trailing 36 months
Which DLA Piper salary a general counsel is matching.
The first question is which scale. The second is whose year. The rows below are the public prints a compensation committee can actually defend in September 2026.
US class-year lockstepLocal, older, or unpublished
- US class-year Associates paid by graduation year on a dollar grid. The last public memo is a 2025 instrument. Bonus eligibility sits on hours and rating beside it.
- London NQ / solicitor Sterling newly qualified and trainee steps, reset in July 2026, with a regional band underneath. Qualifying work experience, not a J.D. class year.
- Local desk Germany still carries a 2023 euro grid on 2026 employer profiles. Hong Kong NQ is not stated. Australia hires graduates on a local program, not the London NQ.
| Desk | Last public figure | Instrument date | What 2026 still does not show |
|---|---|---|---|
| US first-year base | $225,000 | 24 December 2024 memo, for 2025 | A published 2026 US lockstep match |
| US senior base | $435,000 | Same 2025 memo | A $455,000 2026 senior cap for this firm |
| London NQ | £140,000 | 3–6 July 2026 | Magic Circle cash (£150,000 as of 1 July 2026) |
| UK regional NQ | £84,000 | 3–6 July 2026 | London NQ in a regional seat |
| Germany year 1 | €140,000 | November 2023, still listed 2026 | A newly announced 2026 German raise |
| Hong Kong NQ | Not public | Accessed 11 September 2026 | Any dollar or sterling figure |
The first question is which scale. The second is whose year. Sources as in the caption; click through from the source list.
Start with the US memo, because that is still the grid a US in-house offer gets waved at. On 24 December 2024 Above the Law published the firm’s US associate base salaries for 2025: class of 2024 $225,000; 2023 $235,000; 2022 $260,000; 2021 $310,000; 2020 $365,000; 2019 $390,000; 2018 $420,000; 2017 and senior $435,000. The memo said the firm would provide market base compensation in 2025. It did not publish a 2026 class-year grid.
The bonus columns are a later instrument. Above the Law, on 26 December 2025, reported the firm matching the Cravath/Milbank year-end and special schedule: class of 2024 $20,000 / $6,000 through class of 2018 and senior $115,000 / $25,000. Eligibility sat on seniority, performance rating, productivity against a 2,000-hour billable goal, policy compliance and good standing, with enhanced amounts for qualifying ratings and for each 100 hours above 2,000, up to 2,700. Payout was 26 December 2025 if hours were met by 15 December; otherwise February 2026. The 17 December 2025 PDF hosted by Above the Law treats members of the 2025 associate class separately at $15,000 year-end plus $6,000 special, prorated to 6 October 2025, with payment expected 13 February 2026. Those are 2025 bonuses. A 2026 US special or year-end for this firm had not been announced as of the research date.
| Class year (memos) | Seniority read | 2025 base | 2025 year-end | 2025 special | Memo cash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class of 2024 | First-year on the 2025 grid | $225,000 | $20,000 | $6,000 | $251,000 |
| Class of 2023 | Second-year | $235,000 | $30,000 | $10,000 | $275,000 |
| Class of 2022 | Third-year | $260,000 | $57,500 | $15,000 | $332,500 |
| Class of 2021 | Fourth-year | $310,000 | $75,000 | $20,000 | $405,000 |
| Class of 2020 | Fifth-year | $365,000 | $90,000 | $25,000 | $480,000 |
| Class of 2019 | Sixth-year | $390,000 | $105,000 | $25,000 | $520,000 |
| Class of 2018 | Seventh-year | $420,000 | $115,000 | $25,000 | $560,000 |
| Class of 2017+ | Eighth-year and senior | $435,000 | $115,000 | $25,000 | $575,000 |
Memo cash = 2025 base + 2025 year-end + 2025 special. It is not a 2026 US scale, and it excludes any hours kicker above the printed special. Sources: Above the Law, 24 December 2024 and 26 December 2025.
The first question is which scale. The second is whose year.
Who earns the figure, and who has to match it.
The people who earn these prints sit on DLA Piper LLP (US), DLA Piper UK LLP, and affiliated offices. The general counsel, chief legal officer or head of HR who must put one of them on a company payroll is buying a lateral off a local scale, not a global lockstep.
Earns the printPays to match it
- The associate or NQ Paid on a US class-year grid, a London or regional solicitor step, or a local associate scale. Cash is the W-2 or the UK equivalent. Hours, rating and qualifying work experience sit around it.
- The in-house grade Attorney, Senior Attorney, Associate General Counsel. Cash bands sit below or beside the firm print. Equity does not yet do the work.
- The GC / CLO / head of HR Signs the offer, owns the band, and has to explain to a compensation committee why last year’s US memo does not clear this year’s London NQ.
DLA Piper solicitor salary in the UK is a training-contract seat, not a J.D. class year.
- The UK seat is an International Training Programme. The firm’s careers page, accessed 11 September 2026, describes a two-year program with four six-month rotations and “up to 65 training contracts across the UK each year.” Legal Cheek’s firm profile lists 55 training contracts and 70 percent latest retention. Rotations run across corporate, finance, litigation and regulatory, real estate, intellectual property and technology, employment and tax.
- The credential gate is local. The summer-internship page states a 2:2 undergraduate floor, or Merit if a PGDL, LPC or SQE is already completed. From 2024, trainees joining England and Dubai offices complete SQE1 and SQE2 even if they already hold the LPC; the firm funds tuition and exam fees. The Solicitors Regulation Authority, in August 2025 materials, still requires SQE1, SQE2, two years’ qualifying work experience and suitability. The SRA, updated 25 November 2025, closes the LPC admission window on 31 December 2032; anyone who began a qualifying law degree in September 2022 or later is SQE only. Edinburgh is Scots qualification, not the SQE.
- The US lateral that is actually advertised is mid-level. A 29 August 2026 posting for a capital-markets / public-company associate in California, New York or Phoenix asked for a J.D., office-state admission, at least four years of public-company and capital-markets work, the Securities Act of 1933 and the Exchange Act of 1934, Nasdaq and NYSE listing rules, and “Direct and applicable AmLaw 100 law firm preferred.” That is years 4–7 on the last public US grid, not a 3L.
- Germany and Australia are not the London NQ. LTO, accessed 11 September 2026, puts German associate hiring at 50–60 a year, generally two Prädikatsexamina, a 1,600-hour billable guideline, and a ladder of Associate to Senior Associate (earliest after three years) to Counsel (typically year 6–7) to partner; azur’s 2026 employer profile still lists 70 partners and 208 associates, with about 300 lawyers nationally. The Australian graduate program, accessed the same day, is about 25 seats, an Australian law degree, citizenship or permanent residence, and no visa sponsorship. A Luxembourg corporate senior-associate posting, accessed the same day, asked for five to seven years’ PQE and a Luxembourg or other European qualification, with no salary attached.
In-house is the competing buyer, not the primary payer of these scales, and it almost never hires this cash straight from qualification.
- The person who signs is paid in equity. Above the Law, on 30 July 2025, citing the 2025 General Counsel Report, put the highest-paid Fortune 1000 general counsel at $30.2 million, up 10.6 percent from $27.3 million. Law.com / Corporate Counsel, on a page accessed 11 September 2026, teased the 2026 GC Pay Report (17 August 2026) as covering 551 legal chiefs from Fortune 1000 proxy statements. A related item on that page recorded a public-company medical-device issuer paying a $1.1 million cash sign-on plus $1.5 million of new-hire restricted stock to hire a legal chief from a peer. That is not an associate lockstep.
- Qualifying work experience can already sit in-house. The SRA’s qualifying-work-experience page, updated 26 January 2024, states that QWE can be a training contract, paralegal work, a clinic, or an in-house legal team, in up to four organizations, confirmed by an England and Wales solicitor or COLP. A UK general counsel who wants an NQ is not barred from being the QWE vehicle. They are still matching £140,000 cash if they want the same person the firm just qualified.
- The posting now has to show a range, at least in Virginia. Va. Code § 40.1-28.7:12, effective 1 July 2026, requires a good-faith wage or salary range on every public and internal posting. The $310,000–$420,000 capital-markets range is the form that rule forces on a US requisition. A company that still posts “competitive” in a covered jurisdiction is not matching. It is non-compliant.
- The client set on the other side of the invoice is the later employer. The Luxembourg corporate senior-associate description names multinational corporations, private-equity sponsors, asset managers, financial institutions and founders. The US capital-markets JD names public issuers and underwriters in life science, technology and digital assets. Chambers Global 2026 ranks the platform in TMT, life sciences and real estate. Those general counsel sit on the invoice first and hire off it later.
The platform those seats sit on is large and local at once. Chambers Asia-Pacific 2026 cards the firm at 160-plus partners and 470-plus lawyers in that region. Legal Cheek’s UK profile, accessed 11 September 2026, still describes about 90 offices across 40 countries. Above the Law, reprinting the 2026 NLJ 500 on 3 June 2026, ranked the firm second by headcount among US-centric firms. None of those ordinals is a salary. They are why a general counsel matching one office cannot assume the other office’s print.
DLA Piper NQ salary moved in July. It did not catch the US-firm London floor.
London newly qualified pay at this firm is £140,000. That is a 2026 number. It is also £10,000 below Magic Circle cash and £49,000 below the US-firm London NQ that moved on 5 June.
US class-year raiseUK-international response
- A US lockstep firm prints a dollar floor A New York announcement resets class-year base. In this cycle that announcement was June, not bonus season, and it was not this firm’s.
- US-firm London NQ follows A London office that hires other firms’ newly qualified solicitors can move sterling without running a training-contract class of its own.
- UK-international firms answer on NQ The July step is a retention print at qualification, not a Cravath match and not a US class-year memo.
Sequence, dated. Milbank reset the US class-year scale on 2 June 2026. Legal Cheek, on 5 June 2026, reported Quinn Emanuel lifting London NQ to £189,000 from £180,000, with no UK training contracts — a poach of other firms’ NQs. Non-Billable, on 8 June 2026, described that New York-to-London transmission without needing this firm’s name. Legal Cheek, on 3 July 2026, reported Macfarlanes lifting NQ to £150,000 from £140,000, effective 1 July 2026, matching Magic Circle. Then this firm moved: Law360 on 3 July 2026, Legal Cheek and Legal Business on 6 July 2026, London NQ to £140,000, regional NQ to £84,000.
The prior sterling step was already steep. Legal Cheek, on 12 June 2025, reported London NQ rising from £110,000 to £130,000 (18 percent), with London trainees at £52,000 / £57,000 and regional NQ at £82,000 from £75,000, effective 1 September 2025. Non-Billable, on 6 July 2026, put the new London trainee steps at £55,000 and £60,000, up £3,000. Legal Cheek’s firm profile, accessed 11 September 2026, still lists London PGDL and SQE grants at £12,500 and £17,000 (outside London £8,750 / £12,000), 28 days’ leave, and no annual target hours. Those grants are a cost of the NQ pipeline. They are not US class-year cash.
Law360’s 3 July 2026 piece converted the new London NQ at $187,000. That is not a US payroll number, and it sits $38,000 below the last public US first-year of $225,000. A head of legal who treats “the firm pays first-years $225,000” as the London NQ match is reading the wrong column. The first question is which scale. The second is whose year.
What a general counsel actually has to put on the page.
The in-house offer is a match to a desk, not an internal grade. Across 82 of 124 general counsel and heads of legal in the same London interview cohort, over a 24-month window, the first matching question was which of this firm's scales they were buying.
That 82-of-124 read sits inside the 750. It is the offer-construction problem. A general counsel at a FTSE-listed energy group told us the board had approved a match to the last public US memo and would not reopen the band when the candidate produced a London NQ print dated July 2026. A head of legal at a PE-backed life-sciences platform told us they had priced a US capital-markets hire off the $310,000–$420,000 posting as if it were a new lockstep, then discovered the candidate’s W-2 still sat on the 2025 class-year grid. Both are company-side failures of arithmetic, not of sourcing.
A general counsel matching last year’s US memo against this year’s London NQ is not matching DLA. They are mixing desks. The honest company offer names the desk, copies the dated print the candidate is leaving, and then decides whether title, reporting line and equity are the variables — or whether cash has to move. Equity starts to close the gap at GC and chief legal officer. It does not close it at Attorney through Associate General Counsel.
London NQ as converted by Law360, 3 July 2026
A conversion of £140,000, not a US payroll number. It sits $38,000 below the last public US first-year.
Law360, 3 July 2026 ↗One composite from the London associate book. A UK-headquartered public-company legal department opened an Associate General Counsel seat for a newly qualified solicitor coming off this firm’s London training contract. The first offer tracked an internal grade built in 2025 sterling. The candidate produced the July 2026 £140,000 print. The compensation committee took three weeks to reopen the band; by then the candidate had accepted a stay. The search later closed, on a rewritten cash line, inside the 6-to-12-week window. The delay was not the market. It was the desk.
A general counsel matching last year’s US memo against this year’s London NQ is not matching DLA. They are mixing desks.
DLA Piper PEP paid the 2025 bonus and the July NQ. It did not print a 2026 US grid.
Legal Business, on 17 July 2026, put 2025 profits per equity partner at $4.14 million, from $3.46 million. That is the capacity behind December bonuses and the July sterling step. It is not a partner paycheck, and it is not a 2026 US class-year memo.
Global Legal Post, on 20 July 2026, reported 2025 revenue of $4.6 billion (+8.4 percent) on a 4,800-lawyer platform, in the last full year before a global LLP replaced the Swiss verein from the start of May 2026. Partners had voted on 24 April 2026, Bloomberg Law and Global Legal Post both dated that day; the LLP sat above existing US and International entities, which continued, and the structure was not a single profit pool. DLA Piper UK LLP (Companies House OC307847) last made accounts up to 30 April 2025; Non-Billable, on 17 July 2026, said UK reporting moves to a calendar year from January 2027. A general counsel comparing UK profit prints should not mix an April year with a December year. The hiring consequence named in the verein pieces was the capacity to hire teams across the LLPs. It is not, by itself, a 2026 associate lockstep.
Promotions followed the vote. Legal Business, on 6 May 2026, counted 62 new partners globally, London the largest office intake and New York second, slightly down from 65 the prior year — the first round after the verein vote. Global Legal Post’s July results piece separately recorded 72 partners recruited laterally in the year and a 65-strong April promotions round dominated by corporate and finance. Those are demand proxies. They are not PEP take-home and they are not the US grid.
The deal cycle underneath is less even than the PEP print. CNBC, on 24–25 February 2026, citing PitchBook, put 2025 global M&A at a record $4.9 trillion, up nearly 40 percent; Bain’s Global M&A Report 2026 printed the same value jump and reported that 80 percent of 300-plus M&A executives expected to sustain or increase activity in 2026. Mergermarket / ION Analytics, on 8 July 2026, then put first-half 2026 global M&A at $3.16 trillion (+44 percent). This firm retained the global deal-count crown at 411, down from 718 in the first half of 2025; the European deal-count gold stayed, the haul down 45 percent to 221. Volume-M&A seats cooled. Strategic and issuer-side capital-markets work did not: that is the August 2026 US posting, not a PE buyout wave. PwC, on 23 June 2026, put Q1 2026 buyout value at $482 billion (−14 percent versus Q1 2025) and private-credit AUM above $2.2 trillion.
The files that stall are company-side, and they stall on the desk.
Sartori has worked the London associate market for more than 10 years. The closed-search book on this line is 33 files over three years. The ones that ran long were not the law-firm laterals.
Of those 33 closed London associate searches over three years, 21 were company-side seats — in-house Attorney through Associate General Counsel and the occasional newly qualified solicitor hire — buying talent off an international-firm print, and 12 were law-firm associate laterals. Nine of the 21 company-side files required a rewritten first offer after the candidate produced a desk the compensation committee had not budgeted: a 2025 US class-year rung against a London NQ, or a regional £84,000 print against a London grade. Seven of the 33 ran past the 12-week end of our typical timeline; all seven were company-side seats whose boards had locked a 2025 cash band and would not reopen it after the July 2026 London NQ move. That is the finding that does not flatter the method: we can assemble the shortlist inside the window. We cannot make a compensation committee name the desk twice.
London associate counter-offer incidence on this line is 35 percent. Sartori’s London associate mandate telemetry records a median of 12 working days from offer to acceptance. Typical time-to-fill is 6 to 12 weeks. Completion on the book is 93 percent. A head of HR who needs a week of internal alignment after the offer letter goes out is negotiating against a clock the candidate does not pause.
Sartori maps approximately 30,000 lawyers in London. That file records employer, seniority and practice. It cannot see which published scale a given associate is actually paid on, because that number lives inside a firm memo and a payroll file. Quarterly surveys have run since 2019; the global mapping sits behind them at nearly 1.5 million lawyer profiles. Use the last dated announcement to price the offer. Use the mapping to find the people.
A second composite. A PE-backed technology platform opened a Senior Attorney seat for a third-year US associate coming off this firm’s last public grid. The first band was built from an internal grade. The candidate’s current base was the 2025 third-year of $260,000, plus a year-end the December 2025 memo set at $57,500. The company matched base, kept the bonus discretionary, and closed in the ninth week. The general counsel who ran it treated the class-year print as the floor and the title as the variable. That is the only arithmetic that has worked on this book.
The service view of the company-side book sits on our in-house and general counsel recruiting page, and the firm-side associate book on associate and attorney recruiting. The matching-firm eight-rung ladder, when that is the question, is the 2026 BigLaw associate salary scale. Companies building a legal function rather than adding a seat should start with hiring your first general counsel.
DLA Piper pay: questions from both sides of the offer
What is the DLA Piper salary in 2026?
There is no single figure: the last public US first-year base is $225,000, and London NQ is £140,000. Above the Law published the US class-year grid from a 24 December 2024 firm memo for calendar 2025, running through $435,000 for the class of 2017 and senior. Legal Cheek and Legal Business dated the London newly qualified reset 6 July 2026 (Law360, 3 July). Above the Law’s 2026 summer raise scorecard, with table contents through 31 August 2026, does not list DLA Piper among firms matching Milbank’s 2 June 2026 $235,000–$455,000 scale. A general counsel matching this firm has to name the desk before naming the dollar.
What is the last public DLA Piper associate salary on the US class-year grid?
The 24 December 2024 memo set 2025 US bases from $225,000 (class of 2024) to $435,000 (class of 2017 and senior). Year-end and special bonuses for 2025, reported by Above the Law on 26 December 2025, run from $20,000 / $6,000 (class of 2024) to $115,000 / $25,000 (class of 2018 and senior), against a 2,000-hour billable goal. Those are 2025 instruments. A 2026 US class-year base for this firm has not been published.
What is DLA Piper NQ salary in London in 2026?
London newly qualified base is £140,000 as of 3 to 6 July 2026, up from £130,000. Regional NQ across Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield is £84,000, from £82,000. Legal Cheek, 6 July 2026, and Legal Business the same day printed both steps; Law360 dated the London move 3 July and converted it at $187,000. That dollar figure is a conversion, not a US paycheck. Magic Circle cash sat at £150,000 after Macfarlanes matched on 3 July 2026; Quinn Emanuel London NQ was £189,000 on 5 June 2026.
What is DLA Piper PEP, and is it a partner paycheck?
Legal Business, on 17 July 2026, put 2025 profits per equity partner at $4.14 million, up from $3.46 million. Global Legal Post, 20 July 2026, reported the same year’s revenue at $4.6 billion (+8.4 percent) on a 4,800-lawyer platform, and said the May 2026 global LLP is not a single profit pool. PEP is firm profit divided by equity owners. It is not what a named partner takes home, and it is not the number a general counsel matches on an associate or NQ hire.
How should a general counsel match this firm on an in-house offer?
Price the desk the candidate is leaving: a 2025 US class-year rung, London NQ at £140,000, or a local print. Equity starts to close the gap at GC and chief legal officer; it does not close it at Attorney through Associate General Counsel. Sartori’s London associate desk records a median of 12 working days from offer to acceptance: the candidate will have a current print in hand before a compensation committee reconvenes. A head of HR who copies last year’s US memo onto this year’s London NQ has not opened a match. They have mixed desks.
How fast do London associate-to-in-house offers actually close?
Sartori’s London associate desk records a median of 12 working days from offer to acceptance across 33 closed searches in three years. Counter-offer incidence on that line is 35 percent. The typical search runs 6 to 12 weeks. Files that ran past that window were company-side seats whose boards had locked a 2025 US class-year band and would not reopen it after the July 2026 London NQ move.
Firm memos, Legal Cheek, Am Law, and the desks that still will not print a number.
US class-year dollars come from the 24 December 2024 memo as published by Above the Law. London NQ comes from Legal Cheek, Legal Business and Law360 in July 2026. PEP and revenue come from Legal Business, Global Legal Post and the 2026 Am Law 100. Germany is azur 2023, still listed in 2026. Hong Kong is undisclosed.
Sources and further reading
48 references- Sartori & Partners — London Legal Talent Research Programme (750 structured interviews; ~30,000 lawyers mapped; quarterly surveys since 2019; mandate telemetry) sartoriglobal.com ↗
- Top 3 Biglaw Firm Is Doling Out Tons Of Bonus Money To Associates (page 2, memo) abovethelaw.com ↗
- Top 3 Biglaw Firm Is Doling Out Tons Of Bonus Money To Associates abovethelaw.com ↗
- Top 3 Firm Spreads Holiday Cheer By Stuffing Associate Stockings With Big Bonuses abovethelaw.com ↗
- Memorandum (2025 Year-End Bonuses) abovethelaw.com ↗
- Associate Compensation Scorecard: The 2026 Summer Of Salary Increases abovethelaw.com ↗
- No More Delay In Matching Raises And Bonuses At Top 3 Firm abovethelaw.com ↗
- DLA Piper bumps NQ lawyer pay to £140k in London and £84k in regions legalcheek.com ↗
- DLA Piper boosts NQ lawyer salaries to £130k legalcheek.com ↗
- DLA Piper (Legal Cheek firm profile) legalcheek.com ↗
- DLA Piper boosts NQ pay to £140k in London legalbusiness.co.uk ↗
- DLA Piper Raises NQ Pay In London 8% To £140K law360.com ↗
- DLA Piper PEP passes $4m with 20% jump legalbusiness.co.uk ↗
- DLA Piper grows PEP nearly 20% in final year as verein globallegalpost.com ↗
- DLA Piper closes verein era with near 20% PEP jump nonbillable.co.uk ↗
- DLA Piper hands London NQs another £10k nonbillable.co.uk ↗
- The 2026 Am Law 100 Is Out, And Surprise: The Rich Law Firms Got Richer abovethelaw.com ↗
- The 500 Largest Law Firms In America (2026) abovethelaw.com ↗
- DLA Piper und Hogan Lovells schaffen neue Gehalts- und Bonusstrukturen azur-online.de ↗
- DLA Piper als Arbeitgeber - Karriere, Gehalt, Berufseinstieg lto.de ↗
- DLA Piper UK LLP (azur Arbeitgeberprofil) azur-online.de ↗
- DLA Piper (Hong Kong) hk.legalcheek.com ↗
- DLA Piper promotes more than 60 partners as firm shifts to single leadership structure legalbusiness.co.uk ↗
- DLA Piper Partners Approve Plan to Dissolve Swiss Verein news.bloomberglaw.com ↗
- DLA Piper votes to dissolve verein globallegalpost.com ↗
- Virginia Law Will Require Pay Transparency, Restrict Employers from Seeking Wage History morganlewis.com ↗
- Code of Virginia Title 40.1 law.lis.virginia.gov ↗
- Virginia: Pay transparency law goes into effect July 1, 2026 knowledge.dlapiper.com ↗
- Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) route sra.org.uk ↗
- Qualifying work experience sra.org.uk ↗
- Becoming a solicitor with the Legal Practice Course (transitional requirements) sra.org.uk ↗
- International training programme | DLA Piper Careers careers.dlapiper.com ↗
- Summer internship | DLA Piper Careers careers.dlapiper.com ↗
- Graduate programme | DLA Piper Careers (Australia) careers.dlapiper.com ↗
- Capital Markets / Public Company Associate (Multi-Office) jobs.niri.org ↗
- Senior Associate, Corporate — Luxembourg careers.dlapiper.com ↗
- The Staggering Salary At The Top Of The General Counsel Game abovethelaw.com ↗
- 2025 GC Pay Report: Why So Many Legal Chiefs Feel in the Dark About What They'll Earn law.com ↗
- Global M&A stays strong in 2026 despite tightest capital squeeze in 30 years cnbc.com ↗
- Global M&A Report 2026 bain.com ↗
- Kirkland & Ellis, Sullivan & Cromwell top M&A rankings in record 1H26 ionanalytics.com ↗
- Global M&A trends in private capital: 2026 mid-year outlook pwc.com ↗
- Quinn Emanuel smashes London NQ lawyer salary record with £189k pay packet legalcheek.com ↗
- Macfarlanes matches Magic Circle with £150k NQ lawyer salary legalcheek.com ↗
- London's associate pay divide deepens after US firm salary hikes nonbillable.co.uk ↗
- DLA Piper LLP, Asia-Pacific 2026 chambers.com ↗
- Benefits Highlights and Enrollment Guide benefitsus.dlapiper.com ↗
- DLA PIPER UK LLP overview find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk ↗
Sartori figures are the London associate interview cohort, mandate telemetry on 33 closed searches over three years, and the company-side reads drawn from that book. Public compensation tables are firm memos, careers pages, Legal Cheek, Legal Business, Law360, azur, LTO and the 29 August 2026 US posting. No 2026 US class-year base for this firm is used, because none was published on the pages. The eight-rung matching ladder after 1 July 2026 is documented on the sibling BigLaw scale page; this page cites only that DLA Piper is absent from the matcher table through 31 August 2026.
Compensation data is general information, not financial, career or legal advice. Actual pay varies by desk, class year, hours eligibility, rating, equity and bonus discretion. Figures effective as dated in the prose. The next dated memo can reset one desk without the query changing its name.
Adjacent benchmarks for the same two readers.
BigLaw associate salary scale 2026
The Milbank/market lockstep — $235,000 first-year through $455,000 eighth-year — owned as the national matching ladder, not this firm's last public US memo.
Read the market lockstepGeneral counsel and CLO salary 2026
What chief legal officers and general counsel earn by company size — the budget holder who has to match a DLA print on an in-house offer.
Read the GC benchmarkIn-house and general counsel recruiting
How we fill Attorney through GC seats at companies that are buying talent off an international-firm scale, not hiring 3Ls.
See the in-house deskA quiet conversation
Matching this firm on an in-house offer?
We price the desk the candidate is leaving — US class-year, London NQ, or local — and we will say when a grade cannot clear the dated print. Confidential, no obligation, for general counsel, chief legal officers and heads of HR.