Even as the Indian legal market continues to take a hit owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, full-service law firm Spice Route Legal has announced a hike in its yearly compensation structure for 2021.

The revised annual salaries range from Rs. 9.72 lakh per annum for a fresh hire (Associate 1) to over Rs. 50 lakh for an experienced Senior Associate (inclusive of annual bonus).

Below is a table of the new pay structure at the firm:

*compensation inclusive of annual bonus

Speaking to Bar & Bench on the development, Spice Route Legal co-founder Praveen Raju and Partner Mathew Chacko said,

"It isn’t a major revision in the pay structure, it is an annual revision. It was a year in which we expected things to go south, but we did quite well, and we decided to share the rewards with lawyers at the firm."

Chacko adds that the firm has not really borne the brunt of the financial slowdown caused by the pandemic, save in the month of June.

"We are a small firm with around 30-odd lawyers and we’ve only been operational for about four years. Whatever rate we have been going at in the past few years, we have gone at during this year, so there has been no real difference."

A number of law firms have taken the call to compensate their lawyers with bonuses notwithstanding the pandemic situation.

Trilegal was the latest to do so, announcing annual performance-based retainers and increments for all its lawyers across the board as per schedule.

Khaitan & Co recently released bonuses in full to all its lawyers. Before that, both Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas released bonuses to their lawyers.