Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas managing partner Shardul Shroff has confirmed an increase in fresher pay to the highest base level out of any Indian law firm.

Shardul Shroff told Legally India in an interview on Monday: “It’s in the range of Rs 15 - 16 lakh, depending on the quality (of recruit) we get… (It applies) retrospectively also - the base level is between 15 to 16 depending on how the candidate is.”

The pay hike has been effective for the last two months, as also reported in Legally India and Mint’s feature on the brewing salary war between law firms that was kicked of by Khaitan & Co that hiked flat basic fresher pay to Rs 14.4 lakh per annum, or up to Rs 16.2 lakh per annum with a bonus.

Shroff had declined to comment on the increase in the Delhi region at the time due to the ongoing mediation with his brother and co-managing partner Cyril Shroff.

“This is without any variable,” Shardul Shroff now explained about the new system. “It’s 100% of what they would have otherwise got in the old firm - we had a 10% variable structure in the past - we’ve now formulated 100% of what we fixed will be what they get (for freshers).”

“Senior levels as they move up obviously they have performance-based compensation,” added Shroff. “That was obviously there in the past and (we’ve) not made much change to the proportions between fixed and variables. But (we are) in the process of changing the variables: once we change the way (variables are allotted), we will come forth with that (and adjust the levels).”