Associate Bonus Watch: More Firms Jump On The Davis Polk Bandwagon

It looks like Davis Polk's higher bonus scale will carry the day in Biglaw.

When Davis Polk first announced its delicious bonus scale, an improvement over the already generous Simpson Thacher bonus scale, industry observers wondered: whose scale would carry the day, DPW’s or STB’s?

In the wake of the Davis Polk news, we covered a few firms matching Simpson. But then Sullivan & Cromwell, a Biglaw heavy hitter, matched Davis. Not long after, Cleary Gottlieb and Paul Weiss matched Davis.

Last night, Simpson itself matched Davis, and so did Cravath. Game, set, match, Davis.

In case there’s any doubt about this, we now bring you three more Davis matches:

1. Skadden Arps: SASMF announced this afternoon that it’s matching the DPW scale, in an email noting that the firm “has a continuing commitment to be competitive.”

Our tipsters received the news well. “I was thrilled with the initial announcement,” said one. “This is just icing on the cake.”

“Glad we’re in line with market,” another told us. “The scale is pretty generous compared with the last few years.”

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2. Debevoise & Plimpton: Debevoise matched Davis too. When asked for a reaction, one Debevoise source said, “Pretty happy. We are a top firm, had a great year — nice to see the hard work recognized!”

3. Clifford Chance: It wasn’t a foregone conclusion that this Magic Circle firm would make Davis Polk bonuses appear — so the fact that it did made people quite happy:

I am really very pleased — ecstatic even. I wasn’t sure whether or not Clifford Chance would match, although they usually do, but really happy that they matched the higher bonuses set by DPW (which everyone else seems to be following now). I had been thinking that if they did not match, I would jump ship next year, given the moving job market, but for now I’ll be staying put.

It sounds like those bountiful bonuses are doing their job in terms of contributing to associate retention. And in other happy Clifford Chance news, from a different source and from earlier this week:

Clifford Chance’s D.C. office held our annual fundraising fair to benefit the Children’s Law Center. The managing partner of the office along with the longest tenured partner both stepped up and offered to take pies to the face as part of the event. These two magnanimous souls even kicked in an extra bounty (i.e., agreed to donate additional dollars to the charity) for every pie that hit them.

All told, these rock stars took FORTY ONE pies to the face from assistants, paralegals, office support personnel, associates, and other partners. The event has raised over $17K and counting (including the firm’s generous contribution).

I am proud to work with such fun and charitable people . . . who are also brilliant, successful, and world-renowned lawyers.

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And who are paid at the top of the market (not counting outliers like Cahill or Boies or Wachtell). Congrats to associates at these three firms on the Davis match.

(Flip to the next page if you want to see the Clifford Chance memo.)


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