Associate Bonus Watch 2011, Biglaw, Bonuses, Crime, Insider Trading, Money, White-Collar Crime

Associate Bonus Watch: Fried Frank Announces Bonuses 'Up to $52,500'

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Here’s a Fried Frank bonus for you: Matthew Kluger, the former Fried Frank associate who sued the firm for alleged discrimination, is going to prison. As you may recall, Kluger — who also worked as an associate at other top law firms, including Cravath, Skadden, and Wilson Sonsini — was charged in a massive insider trading case this past spring. A week ago, he pleaded guilty to all four counts against him. He’ll be sentenced in April 2012.

Now, on to the matter at hand: associate bonuses in the New York office of Fried Frank. How were they this year?

The answer is just like last year’s: we’re not quite sure. The memo, reprinted in full on the next page, merely states that the firm “will pay year-end bonuses on December 29, 2011 to New York associates in varying amounts up to $52,500.”

Last year’s memo mentioned $40,000 as the ceiling. So perhaps this year’s bonuses are better than last year’s (although that’s not necessarily the case, in aggregate; all we know is that this year’s top bonus is higher than last year’s top bonus).

One of our Fried Frank sources believes that the FFHSJ bonuses are, for the most part, equal to or better than market:

In talking to people, although the rates for actual levels of seniority were not disclosed, everyone thus far has gotten at least the Sullivan and Cromwell scale. Most people got the same as they would in lock-step, while any divergence upward was presumably based on the “quality of and hours worked.”

No word on spring bonuses or whether the generosity in the year-end bonuses may impact spring bonuses.

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Also note that we just have the memo to New York associates. If you have bonus information for the firm’s D.C. office, feel free to send it our way, and we will update this post with it.

And that, in a nutshell, is the bonus lowdown at Fried Frank. If you like, you can read the complete memo, from the fabulously named duo of Valerie Jacob and Justin Spendlove, on the next page.

Ex-Corporate Lawyer Headed to Prison for Insider Trading [Main Justice]
Ex-Am Law Associate Kluger Pleads Guilty in $37 Million Insider Trading Scheme [Am Law Daily]

Earlier: Associate Bonus Watch: Fried Frank Announces Bonuses ‘Up to $40,000’
Associate Bonus Watch 2011

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