Associate Bonus Watch: Word From A Top D.C. Firm

Will some firms once again pay their non-New York associates significantly smaller bonuses than their NYC-based colleagues?

onDecember 14, 2015 at 11:01 AMDecember 15, 2015 at 9:25 AM

… in its New York office. As it traditionally does, Covington & Burling is matching the Cravath scale in its NYC outpost (located just a few blocks away from Cravath, in the New York Times building). The memo, from partners Dianne Coffino and David Haller, came out on Friday night.

The news came as no surprise, as one tipster told us:

I haven’t heard any chatter about the announcement at all — no one’s surprised, no one’s disappointed. Even the management committee seems to have adopted that view, given the Friday-evening announcement.

In all, it’s entirely in line with the firm’s position as a non-compensation leader that views the Simpsons/Cravaths/SullCroms of the world as its direct competition. Basically, the market match was preordained, and now that it’s official everyone can shift their focus back to trying in vain to avoid work over the holidays.

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From Pilot and Above The Law

Two notes. First, the memo speaks in terms of “maximum bonus amounts” according to the Cravath scale, which leaves open the possibility that some Covington associates in New York might get less. The Covington sources we’ve heard from view this announcement as basically a match of Cravath, but if there are any caveats that should be added here, please let us know.

Second — and perhaps more interestingly — what will Covington do back in its home base of Washington, where it is arguably the top dog in town (at least among full-service Biglaw firms, setting aside elite litigation boutiques and such)?

Last year, as you may recall, Covington paid bonuses in D.C. that were, on the whole, lower than the New York scale (as well as much later, announced at the end of March). That didn’t sit well with Covington associates in Washington — but in fairness to the firm, paying lower bonuses outside Manhattan was pretty standard market practice last year.

We’re focusing on associate bonuses in New York because NYC moves first, but we are interested in associate compensation news from around the country. When your firm announces its bonuses, wherever it might be, please email us with the memo. Thanks.