Lawyer Bonuses Leaves U.K. M&A Watchdog Battling for Talent

(Bloomberg) -- The U.K.'s antitrust regulator is fighting to attract the right talent as the lure of the private sector's record salaries means a hefty pay cut for specialists wanting to work for the government.

Andrea Coscelli, the Competition and Markets Authority's chief, told lawmakers that the watchdog was finding it tough to compete for the best people in some areas due to the public sector wages it offers.

“We are constantly, in a way, fighting for talent,” Coscelli said to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee on Tuesday. “For mergers, antitrust and digital, it's a bit tougher because the private sector market is very hot at the moment in those areas.”

The need for specialist lawyers has heated up the market as law firms battle to attract and retain the best talent with bigger bonuses and soaring wages. A newly qualified lawyer at a top London firm can now expect to earn over 100,000 pounds-a-year ($135,720).

One of the CMA's highest-ranking lawyers, Jenny Coombes, left the agency to join Meta Platforms Inc. at the end of last year, despite being promoted in July. Coombes had joined the public body from Alphabet Inc.'s Google.

Merger activity reached new heights last year as companies booked $5 trillion-plus of deals in 2021, nearly a trillion more than the previous record set in 2007.

For regulators, there will be a steady stream of absorbing work as they grapple with how to chip away at big tech's dominance and work with new national security rules.

Coscelli said that the agency is an attractive place to work since it became more powerful on the global stage post-Brexit. Some lawyers even accept a pay cut to work on significant deals like Nvidia Corp.'s bid for British chipmaker Arm Ltd and a potential upcoming probe into Microsoft Corp.'s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc, he said.