Associate Bonus Watch: Another Firm Hops On The Simpson Thacher Bandwagon

Which firm decided to match Simpson Thacher's bonus scale this time?

Happy Monday, everyone! What better way to start a new week than to bring you more bonus news?

As we observed on Friday, at least a few firms — like Paul Weiss and Cleary Gottlieb — aren’t sitting on their hands and waiting for Cravath to make its move. Instead, they’ve decided to follow Simpson Thacher’s lead, just like they did back in 2007 when the firm decided to raise associate base salaries to $160,000.

It’s still early in bonus season, so we’ll have to wait and see how many firms will stray from their precedent of copying Cravath. For the moment, we’ve got one more firm that decided to buck past trends and match Simpson’s generous 2014 bonus scale.

Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy made its announcement on Sunday night, in an email sent by Chairman Scott Edelman. Here’s an associate’s reaction to the news:

Milbank matched Simpson’s bonuses. Yay! Looks like it’s $nowballin!

It seems that Milbank’s only qualifications are that associates must be in good standing and must still be working at the firm on the day bonuses are paid — a date sometime in January, which is the firm’s standard practice.

Congratulations to Milbank associates on their big-time bonus bucks. If we missed your firm’s announcement, feel free to email us or text us (646-820-8477). We always appreciate an actual bonus memo, so please send one if you can. Thanks!

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If you’re interested, flip to the next page to read the memo from Scott Edelman.

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