Associate Bonus Watch: Sullivan & Cromwell!!!
Happy Friday! But for whom?
Happy Friday! To partners unwilling to pay out more in bonus money.
The final member of the Fab Five to make a bonus announcement, Sullivan & Cromwell, just made its move. And it appears to have matched the Cravath scale.
As you may recall from prior years, S&C doesn’t issue a universal bonus memo listing different class years and their respective bonuses; instead, it sends each associate an individual memo with a link to an intranet page listing that lawyer’s year-end bonus and compensation for the year ahead. We have heard from S&C associates in a wide range of class years, and so far they all report amounts on the Cravath scale.
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A range of reactions from Sullivan sources:
- “It’s very disappointing.”
- “Pretty disappointing. Not that I expected more from S&C, who has begun nickel and diming associates with things like cabs and meals lately, but partners will be taking home boatloads of cash this year — so a slight nod to the associates responsible for that would have been greatly appreciated.”
- “Not surprised. Still a good chunk of cash, even after killer taxes.”
- “Was hoping for an upset, but at the end of the day, bonuses went up materially last year, so I’m personally okay waiting another year for an increase.”
The Sullivan & Cromwell bonuses will be paid on December 18. No mention in the memo of spring bonuses, which S&C has sometimes paid in the past.
Barring any major surprises, the Biglaw bonus scale is now set. We’ll continue to track the announcements, even if there won’t be as much suspense going forward.
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As soon as your firm’s bonus memo comes out, please email it to us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus”). We keep our sources on bonus stories anonymous, of course. No need to send the memo using your firm email account; your personal email account is fine. But please be sure to include the memo as proof; we like to post complete bonus memos as a service to our readers. You can take a photo of the memo and attach as a picture if you are worried about metadata in a PDF or Word file. Thanks!
(Flip to the next page to see the form of the individualized S&C bonus memo.)
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