Meraki Talent

Legal Salary Guide 2025

Get the most comprehensive overview of 2025 legal salaries in Scotland

Empower yourself with the latest insights into legal salaries and hiring trends across Scotland. Backed by real market data and expert analysis, the 2025 Legal Salary Guide is designed to support informed career decisions and strategic hiring.

Whether you're exploring your earning potential or benchmarking salaries across your legal team, this guide is your essential resource for 2025.

Get your free copy now

Who is the Legal Salary Guide for?

This guide is essential reading for:

Law firm partners and HR leaders developing compensation strategies
In-house legal teams planning growth
Legal professionals benchmarking

Find out what you should be earning here

Benchmark your legal team’s salaries

For hiring managers, partners, and talent acquisition professionals, this legal salary guide gives a reliable benchmark for legal salaries across Scotland. With the legal hiring market continuing to evolve, competitive and transparent salary planning remains critical to attracting and retaining top legal talent.

Benchmark your salaries today.

Salary Guide key findings

The Scottish legal sector is navigating a significant shift in hiring. After years of expansive growth, 2025 has brought a more measured, strategic approach.
Mid-Level Crunch: The scarcity of 3–7 PQE talent is reshaping hiring strategies. Firms are doubling down on junior lawyer development, but the immediate gaps remain.

Counteroffers & Retention: Firms are fighting harder to retain talent, often restructuring roles or accelerating progression to avoid losing key individuals.
In-house migration: Mid-level lawyers continue to shift into in-house roles for stability and better work-life balance, especially in financial services, fintech, energy, and the public sector.

What does the Salary Guide cover?

The full guide includes detailed salary ranges across:

Legal Private Practice & In-House
Compliance, Risk & Financial Crime
HR, Marketing & Business Support and Development
Legal Tech
Accountancy & Finance within Legal Services

Outlook for Scotland’s Legal Market in 2025

In 2025, the legal hiring landscape in Scotland has entered a new phase, defined by greater caution, sharper focus, and strategic intent. Firms are no longer hiring for growth; recruitment is now aligned to business needs. Economic pressures such as persistent inflation, high interest rates, and global slowdowns in deal activity, shape the market.

The most acute challenge is the shortage of mid-level lawyers. While newly qualified talent enters the market in strong numbers, this has not addressed the critical skills gap at the core of many legal teams.

Hiring demand remains especially strong in commercial real estate, mid-market M&A and private equity, financial services regulation, and private client work focused on high-net-worth individuals.

Today the Scottish legal hiring market is balancing two opposing forces: an oversupply of junior talent and a scarcity of mid-level candidates. Firms are responding with more targeted hiring, sharper offers, and a renewed focus on flexibility, development, and culture.

In 2025, firms able to navigate this complex landscape with agility and intent will be best positioned to attract, and keep, the talent they need.

Stay ahead of the curve! Download Meraki Talent's Salary Guide today.

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