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i had a firstround interview with a london office, where most lawyers are UK-qualified.

some are 'trainee solicitors' who will officially qualify after two years as a trainee

the partner said the work we do will be mostly the same although I will only work as a registered foreign attorney.

if I get this job, should I expect a trainee salary or the salary for a newly qualified lawyer? I do hope and expect to get qualified as a UK lawyer in the future.

(I am not sure if they will even offer a US pay scale, given there are virtually no US qualified lawyers at that office)

Presumably you interviewed with the US team, therefore you will enter as a US qualified lawyer. I'm sure you would have noticed if you were interviewing/had applied for a training contract. These firms keep a group of US lawyers to do very specific work (generally capital markets), and UK trainees are not so limited, since they are entering the firm's general practice and get to do rotations around all the different practice groups before they choose one to qualify into. US lawyers at UK firms make the US market payscale, generally. The firm should inform you about compensation when they send you the offer.

That's it in a nutshell, but there is a lot of discussion about this on the site right now so I would recommend a forum search.

Also, which firm was this? Some of us may have interviewed with/have offers from them and can give you more information on compensation or work structure.