Small Firm Bonuses: The Results

It was almost two weeks ago that I, still fat from Thanksgiving turkey, wondered publicly about the status of bonuses at small law firms. Well, it’s time to get the results of that status check.

I recall Elie using the term “anemic” to describe Cravath’s bonus numbers (which were looking like the standard for Biglaw bonuses this year — at least until Cahill came along). Given that, I can only think the term “uber-anemic” is in order here.

Results and charts, after the break.

Before we get to the numbers, let’s see who was talking about their numbers.

Eighty percent of respondents are in their first five years of practice, with over two-thirds working in a decent-sized city (population 500,000+). The small firms they work for aren’t that small, given that 31% of respondents work for firms with 21 or more lawyers.

As a whole, the group’s law school pedigree is split almost 50/50 between lawyers who attended a law school in the top 50 (according to U.S News, who else) and those who did not. The majority of respondents spend their days toiling in some form of litigation practice.

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So what did the past year of toil amount to in bonuses for this group? Well, for starters, a full third of respondents reported getting no performance-based bonus whatsoever. For those that did get some kind of bonus, here’s what the overall breakdown looks like:

For 70% of the group, your bonus was less than $10,000 — which is worth even less to you after taxes, right? Yeah, thanks for the hard work. The more depressing part here is that the overwhelming majority reported these numbers as being at or better than last year’s bonus numbers.

Based on the responses, there is little correlation between bonus amounts and years of experience. There were several veteran lawyers/partners reporting a bonus of less than $1,000, and a handful of kids in their first few years practicing reporting in the $20,000 and up column. The same lack of association is evident in comparing law school pedigree with bonus size.

In other words, the results were all over the map. Thus, I accidentally proved again that small firms are indeed eclectic and their movements are difficult to predict en masse.

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With that, let’s look at my top five most depressing statements from the respondents. Hopefully, these will at least make you feel better (unless of course you’re the author of one of them, in which case you’re stuck with the boobie prize of seeing your very own words on this fine website):

  1. I got a $100 gift card — so I suppose that counts as less than $1000. And hey, I am happy for it – that’s nearly a full day’s pay!
  2. I have to do everything. No bonus.
  3. From what I heard through the office grapevine, all attorney bonuses, regardless of seniority, were $1000 (as was office manager and head paralegal).
  4. I have not seen a bonus in the last three years, unless you count getting reimbursed for CLEs and mileage at the end of the year. Does that count?
  5. No bonus since 2006 (from a lawyer who’s been practicing 10+ years).

Have some happier news about small firms? Send them to me via email or come find me on Twitter.

Earlier: A Small Firm Salary Survey: The Results (Part 1)
A Small Firm Salary Survey: The Results (Part II)


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