Associate Bonus Watch: An Open Call for News and Memos

As we first reported, Cravath, Swaine & Moore has kicked off the 2007 bonus season, with yesterday’s announcement of “special” and year-end bonuses for its associates. Here’s coverage from the New York Law Journal and the WSJ Law Blog, who actually got Cravath to talk to them. (CSM declined ATL’s request for comment.) Both sources credit ATL; we thank Anthony Lin and Peter Lattman for the shout-outs.
This leads us to the second stage of bonus season: waiting for the other shoes to drop. We intend to cover bonus developments as closely as we did last year. If a firm is a Vault 100 or AmLaw 100 law firm, or even if its name rings a vague sort of bell, we want to hear about its bonus announcement.
We can’t cover this subject without your help. We need you to let us know, as soon as possible, when your firm makes a bonus announcement. Per ATL standard operating procedure, we will NOT identify you as our source.
Here’s how to reach us with bonus news:

1. As you probably already know, you can send bonus news and memos to us by email (subject line: “Associate Bonus Watch: [firm name]”.

2. To be on the safe side, email us from a non-work email account (but preferably one with your real name, so we can confirm that you actually work where you work, by looking you up on the firm website).

3. To be on the super-safe side, save your email in draft form in your non-work account (e.g., Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, etc.). When you’re ready to send, access that account using the web browser in your Blackberry or other wireless device, open the saved draft, and hit “send.” (You could also send the message when you get home, but that would take forever.)

4. Another way to contact us: send us a Facebook message. Even if your firm monitors the websites you visit, being on Facebook won’t get you in trouble (provided you do it in moderation).

5. Yet another way to reach us: by instant messenger or Gmail chat. If you’re a regular ATL tipster, or if you’re our Facebook friend, you know where to reach us on AIM and on Gmail chat.

6. Yet another way to reach us: by phone. Many of you have our phone number, which is also listed in our Facebook profile.

As you know, we prefer to have full memos (although we’ll take just the numbers if that’s all we can get). Please keep your friends at ATL in mind this bonus season, and send us your news ASAP. The project of bringing greater transparency to associate compensation can’t work unless you do your part. Thanks!
Cravath First! Let BigLaw’s Associate Bonus Season Begin [WSJ Law Blog]
Cravath to Give Associates Special Bonus Plus Year-End Bonus [New York Law Journal]
Earlier: Cravath Announces Bonuses — ‘Special’ and Otherwise!!!

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