Associate Bonus Watch 2010

Associate Bonus Watch: Clifford Chance Matches Cravath

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The bonus news is coming fast and furious now. I guess a lot of Biglaw firms want people to think of Cahill as a “boutique” type of firm like Susman Godfrey instead of a Biglaw competitor who simply saw Cravath’s bonus payout and smashed it.

The latest news is from international powerhouse Clifford Chance. Its New York bonus memo just went out, and it is a straight match of the Cravath scale…

The Clifford Chance bonus memo — sent out firm-wide by Craig Medwick, managing partner of the firm’s American operations — doesn’t explain why Clifford Chance chose only to match the lower, Cravath-based bonus scale. But until Sullivan & Cromwell or some other big boy gets into the game, firms don’t have to explain why they are matching Cravath’s low numbers:

You’ll note that (unlike Cadwalader) Clifford Chance has no hours requirement for the bonus. But the firm still does leave itself some wiggle room in terms of individual payouts based on an associate’s “overall performance.”

It’ll be interesting to see if Biglaw firms can collectively keep the bonus market low. But there are some major players who have thus far been silent on what this bonus market will actually turn out to be. Based on absolutely no inside information, I’m thinking/guessing/speculating that Latham might have some role to play in this before bonus season is settled.

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So I think firms eager to follow Cravath and put this whole associate bonus thing behind them should be a little more cautious. It’ll be kind of embarrassing to have to send around a second associate bonus memo later in which you’ll have to admit that you greedily lowballed your people and are now being forced to up the ante.

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of the 2010 bonus season

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