Associate Bonus (and Nationwide Pay Raise) Watch: Something's Afoot at Fulbright
The holiday season is shaping up to be a cheery one for associates at Fulbright & Jaworski. And not just due to perks like on-site tailoring and automated electronic defibrillators.
They're also getting more cash stuffed in their stockings. The firm just announced a new associate salary and bonus structure for 2008, in its offices in Washington (DC) and Texas.
More details, after the jump.
FULBRIGHT & JAWORSKI -- WASHINGTON, DC -- ASSOCIATE PAY RAISE AND BONUS INFORMATION
There was no memo, since the news was conveyed orally, at a meeting.
The D.C. office of Fulbright & Jaworski just implemented the pay and bonus structure below effective January 2008:
Yr Base 1950 2050 2150 2250 2400 Total
1 $160,000 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $160,000
2 $170,000 $0 $5,000 $5,000 $5,000 $5,000 $190,000
3 $172,500 $17,500 $7,500 $7,500 $7,500 $10,000 $222,500
4 $185,000 $27,500 $7,500 $10,000 $12,500 $12,500 $255,000
5 $200,000 $32,500 $7,500 $12,500 $17,500 $17,500 $287,500
6 $210,000 $40,000 $10,000 $12,500 $17,500 $17,500 $307,500
7 $220,000 $45,000 $10,000 $15,000 $17,500 $17,500 $325,000
8 $230,000 $45,000 $10,000 $15,000 $17,500 $22,500 $340,000
9 $240,000 $45,000 $10,000 $15,000 $17,500 $22,500 $350,000
10 $245,000 $45,000 $10,000 $15,000 $17,500 $22,500 $355,000
Previously, 150 hours of certain non-chargeable time could count towards every bonus level except the first. All 150 of those non-chargeable hours could be for pro bono, or up to 50 of those non-chargeable hours could be for a combination of client development and recruiting interviews. The firm has now done away with this policy, lowered the number of hours required to hit those bonus levels (for example, the 2500 hour bonus is now at 2400 hours) and has instead instituted a discretionary bonus of between $1,000 and $10,000 per year to recognize "extraordinary efforts" in these three areas.
You can compare the new table to the old one, which was previously posted here.
FULBRIGHT & JAWORSKI -- TEXAS -- ASSOCIATE PAY RAISE AND BONUS INFORMATION
With respect to the Texas offices, we don't have such detailed information. Sources in D.C. confirm that Fulbright also raised in Texas, and a source at another Texas firm tells us:
Fulbright in Houston announced last Wednesday their Texas bonuses for all classes for 2008, which clearly trump all numbers put out by any other shop in town. V&E and Baker Botts haven't said what they're doing in 2008 yet, but it is highly atypical for Fulbright to move first in this market.Fulbright was extremely low-key about this announcement. It presented the numbers to the associates in the form of a PowerPoint during a semi-spontaneous associate meeting. So there are no memos are floating around.
I know there are those within Fulbright smart enough to prepare a compilation of all the numbers for all the classes. The question becomes, can you entice associates holding onto any newly announced bonus numbers to cough up the goods?
If you have the Fulbright Texas information, we'd love to get our hands on it. You can send it to us by email. If you're not comfortable emailing, read about other ways to send us compensation information -- instant messenger, Facebook message, telephone, carrier pigeon -- by clicking here. Thanks.
Update: We now have the information for Fulbright's Texas offices. Here it is:
(17) Comments
FIRST!!!
First
When I become President I will put a stop to all hours based bonuses and instead will give more money to janitors at law firms through tax credits. I plan on imposing a special lawyer tax to pay for the new program I like to call, "Buying Votes from Janitors".
10th year associate?
Umm.. where is the list of shame? There are five comments already and no list.
Worst. Table. Ever.
A $2,500 raise?
This only verifies what we already knew: Texas compensation sucks.
huh? sounds like they were and still are way compressed and below market in DC
NYC Bonus List of Shame
2008 Vault Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 Latham & Watkins LLP
9
10
*11 Kirkland & Ellis LLP (Punted)
12
13
14
15
16 Williams & Connolly LLP
17
18 Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
19 O'Melveny & Myers LLP
20
21 Arnold & Porter LLP
22 Jones Day
23 Morrison & Foerster LLP
24
25
*26 Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft (Punted)
27 Hogan & Hartson LLP
28 Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP
29
30 Ropes & Gray LLP
31 Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker
32
33 Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
34 Winston & Strawn LLP
35
36 Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
37
38 Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
39
40
41 King and Spalding
*42 Morgan, Lewis & Bockius (Punted)
43
44 Baker & McKenzie
45 Baker Botts LLP
46 Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP
47 Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP
48 Dechert LLP
49 Irell & Manella LLP
*50 McDermott, Will & Emery (Punted)
51 Jenner & Block LLP
52
53
54 DLA Piper
55
56 Fish & Richardson P.C. (Failed to Match)
57 Fulbright & Jaworski LLP (Failed to Match, No NY numbers yet)
58 Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
59 Goodwin Procter LLP
60 Cooley Godward LLP
61 Alston & Bird
62 Heller Ehrman
63 Vinson & Elkins
64 Bingham McCutchen
65 Sonnenschein Nath
66 Greenberg Traurig
67
68 Holland & Knight
69 Steptoe & Johnson
70 Foley & Lardner
71 Kirkpatrick & Lockhart
72 Chadbourne & Parke
73 Hunton & Williams
74 Nixon Peabody
75 Thacher Proffitt
76 Bryan Cave
77
78 Perkins Coie
79 Stroock & Stroock & Lavan
80 Patton Boggs
81 Howrey
82 Reed Smith
83 Crowell & Moring
84 McGuireWoods
85
86 Arent Fox
87 Katten Muchin Rosenman
88 Finnegan, Henderson
89
90 Thelen Reid & Priest
91 Baker & Hostetler
92
93 Venable
94 Squire, Sanders & Dempsey
95 Kelley Drye & Warren
96 Dickstein Shapiro
97 Fenwick & West
98 Kilpatrick Stockton
99
100 Manatt, Phelps & Phillips
NR. McKee Nelson (Failed to Match)
NR. Hughes Hubbard (Failed to Match)
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BONUS STATUS BY 2006 RPL
Rank 2006 in revenue
by revenue Revenue per lawyer
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Wachtell ABOVE MARKET $2,455,000 2.5%
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2 Sullivan & Cromwell MARKET & ABOVE MARKET FOR SENIOR ASSOC. $1,565,000 1.3%
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3 Wiley Rein $1,520,000 162.1%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 Cravath MARKET $1,355,000 5.9%
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5 Davis Polk MARKET $1,200,000 4.8%
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5 Simpson Thacher-MARKET $1,200,000 6.7%
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7 McKee Nelson BELOW MARKET $1,190,000 1.7%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8 Milbank, Tweed MARKET $1,110,000 10.4%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9 Skadden MARKET $1,095,000 10.1%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10 Cahill Gordon MARKET $1,075,000 8.6%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11 Fragomen, Del Rey $1,070,000 26.6%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12 Gibson, Dunn $1,050,000 4.0%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12 Irell & Manella $1,050,000 9.9%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14 Kirkland & Ellis PUNTED $1,035,000 5.1%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14 Paul, Weiss MARKET $1,035,000 0.5%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16 Munger, Tolles $1,025,000 18.5%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17 Quinn Emanuel $1,020,000 28.3% SLIGHTLY ABOVE MARKET BUT PARTIALLY DEFERRED
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18 Shearman & Sterling MARKET $1,010,000 2.0%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19 Debevoise & Plimpton MARKET $1,005,000 8.6%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20 Cadwalader BONUS ANNOUNCED, NO $ FIGURES $1,000,000 6.4%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21 Boies, Schiller $980,000 3.2%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21 Weil, Gotshal MARKET $980,000 2.6%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23 Cleary Gottlieb MARKET $975,000 7.1%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24 Willkie Farr MARKET $970,000 12.8%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25 Williams & Connolly $955,000 2.7%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26 Finnegan, Henderson $945,000 11.2%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27 Townsend and Townsend $940,000 6.2%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28 Fried, Frank $930,000 MARKET 4.5%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
29 Schulte Roth MARKET W/ HOURS REQS. & POSSIBILITY OF MORE $925,000 6.9%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
30 Latham & Watkins $920,000 5.1%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
31 Wilmer Cutler MARKET $890,000 5.3%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
32 McDermott Will PUNTED $875,000 12.9%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
33 Kaye Scholer MARKET WITH POSSIBILITY OF MORE & PERF. REQS. $865,000 7.5%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
34 Arnold & Porter $855,000 4.9%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
34 Ropes & Gray $855,000 1.8%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
36 Choate, Hall $850,000 10.4%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
36 Kramer Levin MARKET W/ PERF. REQS. $850,000 6.3%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
38 Heller Ehrman $845,000 5.0%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
39 Akin Gump $840,000 7.7%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
40 Hughes Hubbard BELOW MARKET $835,000 12.1%
Not listed: Dewey (Market with hours requirement)
Clifford Chance (Market)
White & Case (Market)
Morgan Lewis (Punted)
Covington (Special Bonus - Regular Bonus not yet announced)
Sidley (Special Bonus - Regular Bonus not yet announced)
Freshfields (Market)
Allen & Overy (Market)
Proskauer (Market with hours reqs.)
Fish & Richardson (Failed to Match)
Linklaters (Market)
Fulbright & Jaworski (Failed to Match, no NY numbers yet)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bonus List of Shame
by NY Attorneys (Source: Crains)
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)
13)
14)
15)
16) Wilson Elser
17)
18)
19) Latham & Watkins
20)
21)
22)
23)
24)
25) Greenberg Traurig
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Non-NY Bonus List of Shame:
(firms not matching in all domestic offices)
Firm (Offices that DID match)
1) Dewey & LeBoeuf (NYC, DC, CA)
2) Fried Frank (NYC)
3) White & Case (NYC)
4) Sidley Austin (NYC)
5) Covington & Burling (NYC)
6) Proskauer (NYC, LA, Boston)
7) WilmerHale (NYC)
So the moral of the story is to go work at a lower Vault firm based in DC instead of Fulbright, and reap the rewards starting third year.
This is actually more generous than Hogan. Hogan has two "tracks": 1800 and 1950. Fulbright's base + bonus at 1950 is equal to Hogan's 1950 track; the difference is at least you get a guaranteed bonus based on the hours milestones above. Hogan's bonus structure is stingy at best. Bonuses are not guaranteed, but discretionary. People get screwed all the time at Hogan.
This actually beats Texas by a fair bit. If you get 1950 you get more than you would for 2000 at other big shops..
Correct me if I'm wrong, but they've just moved some money over from salary to hours-based bonuses. So salaries are compressed, but bonuses make up the difference, in a way. Is this market, all told, in DC?
they don't count pro bono in billables at all? ouch. don't most of the other firms with hours-based bonuses give full credit for pro bono?
say you're a 3d yr on the full 160 scale... at most of those firms (even the cheapest cali firms like heller and mofo) you get a base of 185k for 1950 hours. 150 hours of pro bono would push you up to 2100 hrs, which would qualify you for a sizable bonus.
the fullbright DC 3d yr gets $190k for billing 1950, and maybe 10k more for outstanding pro bono and recruiting contributions. the gibson/latham/OMM/mofo/heller 3d yr in DC gets $185k for showing up, and a bonus of probably $40k for hitting 2100 total hours of billable/pro bono. obviously, a firm paying NYC market would be even higher.
lesson: even in DC, cali firms pay better than DC and texas firms. and NYC firms trump that.
Why work for fullbright anywhere other than texas?
Holy compression, Batman!
Did anyone figure out yet what about King and Spaulding do?