Associate Bonus Watch: 'Very Pleased' Associates At A Leading Silicon Valley Firm

"People are generally happy. We went from well under market to market."

happy associate Biglaw bonus money tech laptop business casualThe “year of atonement” for Biglaw bonuses continues. A top tech firm whose bonuses “burst[] hopes like so many tech bubbles” last year is now putting smiles on associates’ faces.

Congratulations to Wilson Sonsini for taking first place in our new ranking of life-sciences law firms. And congrats to Wilson Sonsini associates on their nice bonuses, announced last Friday.

Some WSGR associates might have been nervous after one of their peer firms, Fenwick & West, announced bonuses that garnered mixed reactions. But it turns out that Wilson Sonsini lawyers had nothing to worry about. As one of them succinctly put it, “People are generally happy. We went from well under market to market.”

A second source provided more detailed analysis:

As you may recall, Wilson Sonsini used to have a tiered bonus structure based on 1900-, 2100-, and 2400-hour levels. In some years (2010 or thereabouts, when Cravath was $7500 and Wilson Sonsini’s was $15,000, for example), the top first-year bonus exceeded the NY scale by as much as 2x, but in other years (the last three, for example), only the 2400 tier has matched the NY scale. Granted, the 1900 and 2100 tiers were usually just a couple thousand dollars away from a NY market scale in those years, but still you can see how that may not go over well with some people, especially when paying the highest rents in the country. And especially when each of the last three years have been record years for the firm.

So the firm changed the bonus structure this year to the lockstep scale that I assume someone sent you. Although not in the memo, we had been told in recent months that there would be an additional 5-10% kicker for a select few who performed especially well. We haven’t found out our individual bonuses yet, so we shall see!

[E]veryone around here seems to be very pleased with these bonuses, and also unsurprised, because they have been talking about this change for months. The 1900 level is very soft because it can include up to 100 hours of firm stuff (certain business development, work on committees, associate interviews, etc.), unlimited pro bono, and up to 100 hours of shadowing for junior associates and up to 50 hours of for mid-levels. You might expect high billers to balk at a lockstep scale, but I haven’t heard anything negative from the ones I know.

I do want to note that for the past several years, the salary scale for the upcoming year has been confirmed in the bonus memo, but this year they just said that the salaries would increase lockstep (“step increases”). Maybe they are holding out to see if NY follows through with a salary hike?

Ah yes, the all-too-familiar hope for NY to 190 (and SV to 190 shortly thereafter). I wouldn’t hold my breath on that. The stock market is a mess today (in case you haven’t heard), fueled by economic worries, and in Biglaw specifically, layoff fears are on the rise. If some or even many firms “have more lawyers than work right now,” don’t expect base salary increases.

But let’s not on end on a down note. Wilson Sonsini did good by its associates, and it deserves some props. Congrats to WSGR on what its bonus memo describes as “a remarkably strong year,” and congrats to its associates on their richly deserved rewards for “continued hard work and dedication to clients.”

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P.S. Speaking of Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, I’ll be in San Francisco for an event on February 9. It’s free and open to all; you can get more info and register here. Thanks to FBANC and UC Hastings for hosting; I look forward to seeing folks there.

UPDATE (9:00 p.m.): Another associate’s take:

[T]he amounts are decent — keeping pace with NY, which WSGR doesn’t always do. So that’s nice. It’s a somewhat new/adjusted system. There used to be a discretionary component to bonuses as well, for everyone that got above the minimum hour mark. It appears they’ve done away with that. [Ed. note: This source is taking a “wait and see” approach to our other tipster’s claim “that there would be an additional 5-10% kicker for a select few who performed especially well.”

From a few people I’ve spoken with, they appreciate the lack of obfuscation, i.e., there’s no wondering where you and others stand. For those folks that don’t hit the hour minimum, however (e.g., some small groups just don’t have that much in the way of billables), it kind of sucks, because they get completely shut out.

(Flip to the next page for the complete Wilson Sonsini bonus memo.)

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