Employees at India’s top law firms are likely to bag handsome payouts by way of average higher increments and bonuses than last year, with companies trying to ring-fence top talent at a time when there is a surge in legal work and potential for robust future growth, said industry officials.

Law professionals said employees are likely to get an average salary increase of 10-15%, with high performers set to bag 20-25% increments as firms try to reward and retain top talent that gives them the competitive advantage. Bonuses for top performers could go as high as 120-150% of the initial targeted variable pay, said senior company officials.

By contrast, average salary increments across industry sectors in India in 2024 could be 9%, marginally lower than last year’s 9.2%, said a recent survey by management consulting firm Deloitte.

“This year has been relatively better than last year in terms of increments and bonuses, especially at junior & mid-levels,” said Amar Sinhji, executive director – human resources, Khaitan & Co. “That is our future talent pool, have performed very well and we will ring fence them.”

Vivek Chandy, joint managing partner, JSA Advocates and Solicitors, said: “The increments are higher than last year, as we are looking at revisiting attorney retainers to fit revised scales,”

This comes at a time when there is a surge in legal business amid rise in M&A deals, vibrant IPO market, rising litigations, regularly evolving GST structures and a constantly changing regulatory environment with a rising focus on corporate governance and ethical standards, said experts.

Besides, high attrition at the middle level as well as continuous talent movement at the Partner level is prompting the law firms to open their purse strings.

“This year there is a strong focus among most law firms to seek compensation & benefits reports and be more methodical in building the right total rewards strategy” said Balanand Menon, Partner & Head-Consulting at specialist legal search firm Vahura.

Companies are also focusing on ring-fencing manpower at the middle level while attrition remains elevated at 20-25%.

“There is a huge war for talent at the Senior Associate and Principal Associate level apart from Partner churn. Firms are trying to bring in more clarity and structure into Partner level pay and build the right partnership structure, while at the entry level there is a focus on giving out more cash in hand to retain talent,” said Menon.

Concurred Kavita Mathur, former chief people officer Trilegal and an independent people and culture expert: “This year the appraisals are expected to be better with strong focus on retention of top talent. Increasingly there is focus on training and career development.”

ET reached out to other full-service law firms such as Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM), Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co (SAM & Co), AZB & Partners, IndusLaw, Luthra & Luthra Law Office and Desai & Diwanji. CAM said they follow the May/June appraisal cycle, other firms refused to participate in the story.

Amit Kapur, joint managing partner of JSA Advocates and Solicitors, said the increments will be in the range of 8-10%. “This is in addition to significant jumps (of 30% to 50%) that have been received by 15% of Associates who have been elevated to Senior Associates, 20% of Senior Associates elevated to Principal Associates, and 31% of Principal Associates elevated to Retained Partners,” said Kapur.

“This has been a steady year (FY24) of growth for us, though muted as compared to earlier years. We have expanded domestically by covering new geographies…Practices such as capital markets, private client, employment, real estate, are all showing sustained growth. The larger practices, such as corporate and litigation also continue to show steady growth. For us, talent is a key differentiator, and we will buttress our efforts towards the acquisition & retention of talent with an industry leading compensation & rewards structure.” Sinhji of Khaitan added.

Companies are also using promotion as a key retention tool. Khaitan has promoted 41 lawyers – with 14 newly appointed Partners and 27 Counsels. JSA promoted 10 lawyers to partnership, while AZB promoted seven to partnership and nine to the counsels.