Associates everywhere would love to hope so but it’s not up to them. Shame.

With news that US firms in the City are making the magic circle look like Ebenezer Scrooge, Freshfilelds has broken ranks and become the first to lift its associate salary freeze for the next financial year. The big spending habits of the big US firms are actually nothing new but the salary freezes imposed by the likes of Freshfields and Slaughters last year took many associates by surprise.

Of the magic circle firms, only Linklaters continued to raise salaries in 2009 albeit with a small increase. In the light of Bingham McCutchen’s rather generous £100k offering to 2010 NQs, it wasn’t going to be long before one of London’s frozen firms felt the need to warm up and loosen the purse strings. So in spite of the frankly appalling outlook for the UK economy, the gauntlet has now been laid down for others to follow. The question is whether Freshfields will end up being seen as a buccaneering trend-setter or whether it has unnecessarily cost itself by jumping too early.