Boosted by booming international financial markets, the City of London has not had it so good since the end of the dotcom bonanza in the late 1990s. Basking in double-digit growth rates, London's law firms have both contributed to that success and benefited from it. The earnings of top City lawyers can now exceed £2m a year.
Having opted to expand and go global ahead of most others, Britain's leading law firms tend to be bigger than their American rivals. Indeed, according to a survey of the world's top 50 law firms, compiled by Legal Business, a British trade paper, five of the world's top six law firms-in terms of turnover-are now British (if DLA Piper, the result of an Anglo-American merger, is included). But they have tended to lag behind in terms of their profitability. That is now changing.
The profit margins of the City's five "magic circle" firms-Clifford Chance, Slaughter and May, Allen & Overy, Linklaters and Freshfields-have soared in recent years and are now comparable with, if not higher than, those of New York's "white shoe" elite. Slaughter and May, the only one of the five not to have gone global, has the joint second-highest profit margin among the top 50.
Not so long ago, a London surgeon could expect to earn as much as a City lawyer. But even the recent big rises in hospital consultants' earnings pall in comparison with those enjoyed by London lawyers. At Slaughter and May, for example, average profits per equity partner (PEP) jumped by almost a third (in dollar terms) last year to $2.75m-more than at any other of the top 50 law firms bar two in New York where PEP averaged $2.8m and $3.0m respectively. Some senior partners get a lot more of course.
Competition for the best lawyers is fierce and poaching frequent. Hence the need to keep headline PEP figures up-even at the cost of getting rid of equity partners, leaving a bigger share of the bounty for the remaining ones. Freshfields is in the process of shedding around 100 of its equity partners. Other leading firms are also undertaking painful restructuring.
Newly qualified lawyers' salaries have also been shooting up in the search for the best talent. Both Freshfields and Allen & Overy now pay their first-year associates £65,000, rising to around £90,000 after three years. (First-year associates at America's top law firms get the equivalent of £80,000.)
But, as many other top-rank City employers have discovered, big earnings do not necessarily guarantee big satisfaction. According to a YouGov poll, published by the Lawyer earlier this month, a quarter of Britain's lawyers (including a fifth of law-firm partners) would like to leave the profession. The disgruntled complained about cripplingly long hours, intense competition and the impersonality of the biggest firms (some with more than 3,000 lawyers). So why don't they quit? Because, say three-quarters, of the pay.
1. Which one of the following is TURE of the status quo of London's economy?
[A] London is enjoying its best time of economic development since 1990s.
[B] The growth rate of London is doubled since the beginning of the 1990s.
[C] The growth rate started to boost since the end of the dotcom era.
[D] The current economy of London is mostly driven by its legal instead of financial market.
2. The world's top 50 law firms are graded according to _____.
[A] their annual margin
[B] their profitability
[C] their sale volume
[D] their quantity of business
3.The phrase “white shoe” (Line 3, Paragraph 3) most probably means____.
[A] white collars
[B] first-class law firms
[C] financial agencies
[D] international banks
4. In order to be competitive, the law firms take the following measures except_____.
[A] dismissing equity partners
[B] carrying out restructuring
[C] having their best lawyers turn more competitive.
[D] raising salaries for recruiting talents
5. From the YouGov poll, it can be inferred that____.
[A] this profession is far from satisfactory
[B] most lawyers will leave the profession sooner or later
[C] most lawyers are satisfied with the profession because of the fat pay
[D] high salary is always contradictory to big satisfaction
词汇注释：
bonanza n. 富矿带, 带来好运之事, 幸运
bask v. 晒太阳(享受温暖), 感到温暖, 愉快或舒适
turnover n. 营业额
cipplingly adv. 临界地，极限地
pall v.覆盖, 使平淡无味
bounty n. 奖金，补助金
disgruntled adj. 不高兴的，不满意的
