Associate Bonus Watch: Fried Frank Wades Into Half-Skadden Pool

After stealthily laying off at least 30 associates, the Fried Frank bonus announcement should come as no surprise:

Nobody expected Fried Frank to break into Skadden territory on bonuses. But at least there is a nod towards the reason for paying the low-end bonuses championed by Cravath:

Current global economic conditions have presented new challenges for our clients and your contributions play an important role in our ability to work together to meet these challenges.

Let’s close off the Fried Frank loop after the jump.


In the earlier days of the 2008 bonus season, firms like Half-Skadden and Skadden-Mart said that their bonus decisions were made, in part, to avoid layoffs. But back in November, we reported that Fried Frank had hopped on the stealth layoff bandwagon. Speaking about Fried Frank, a tipster said:

There has been no formal review process announced, and no one knows what directive came from management last weekend at the partner retreat, but it seems that each group was told to make cuts. People were completely taken off guard when they started getting calls earlier in the week calling them in for their reviews, some of which dredged up years-old information to use as justification for lay-offs, and many of which lasted only 5 minutes or so. Most of the layoffs have been mid-level associates and up, but most junior associates have not yet been reviewed.

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We later reported that the number of Fried Frank associate cuts were at least 30.

Notwithstanding Fried Frank’s proclamation that they “don’t do layoffs,” this bonus news comes in addition to associate cuts.

Will Fried Frank at least pay the people who are left class appropriate salary raises? I guess it depends on what they mean by “working together.”

Earlier: Nationwide Layoff Watch: Fried Frank Stealth Layoff Update

Nationwide Layoff Watch: Stealth Layoffs at Fried Frank

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Prior ATL coverage of 2008 associate bonuses.