Associate Bonus Watch 2009, Biglaw, Bonuses, Kasowitz Benson, Money

Associate Bonus Watch: Kasowitz Benson

onJanuary 7, 2010 at 12:29 PMJanuary 9, 2012 at 4:29 PM

We’re still catching up on associate bonus news. There have been some memos we’ve missed, including some from last month (technically, last year). If we haven’t reported on your firm’s bonus announcement, please email us. Don’t assume that one of your colleagues will submit the memo; that’s not necessarily the case.

Today we belatedly bring you bonus news from Kasowitz Benson. On December 31, the firm announced “benchmark” bonuses that appear to follow the Sullivan & Cromwell scale. But the memo notes that these are just “benchmark amounts, which are subject to adjustment to reflect individual performance and hours worked.” In the memo’s bonus table, the words “of up to” appear in between the words “Year-end bonus” and the dollar amount.

In addition, even some Kasowitz associates who received the full market amount aren’t happy. Find out why, and check out the full memo, after the jump.

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From Pilot and Above The Law

From one KB lawyer:

It may be market, but lots of associates are upset. The firm had its best year ever, just brought in an entire practice group from Dickstein Shapiro, and partner Aaron Marks was recently bragging to the law journals about how busy we are. We opened a Miami office earlier this year, and we are interviewing/hiring on a rolling basis without any layoffs. No offense to others without jobs, but associates who billed their lives away this past year (many were over 2400 hours) are pretty p*ssed.

The full Kasowitz memo appears below.