Associate Bonus Watch: 'Very Satisfying' Bonuses -- Plus A Pay Scale Overhaul

Another firm moves away from merit-based compensation and back toward lockstep.

Merit-based compensation: the Chia Pet of Biglaw. Watch it grow!

Merit-based compensation: the Chia Pet of Biglaw. Watch it grow!

Is it time to call “merit-based compensation” the Biglaw equivalent of hula hoops and parachute pants — a passing fad that we’ll look back on someday and chuckle over? Performance-based pay caught on during the wake of the Great Recession, which led some critics to call it “a thinly veiled cost-saving measure.” But now that the economic recovery is several years old — so old that some fear we’re overdue for a fresh recession — merit-based comp is falling out of favor. The latest firm to move back toward lockstep: WilmerHale.

Before we get to that, though, a brief word about WH’s bonuses. We don’t have the bonus memo or many assessments, but the few we do have are positive. For example:

  • “Received my bonus and salary information at WilmerHale. Midlevel associate. Made hours (hours requirement is 2000 hours including pro bono and a few substantive legal firm assignment hours). Good reviews. Received market/Cravath scale bonus. To be paid January 29. New salary for coming year will be lockstep Simpson scale. Quite pleased.”
  • “Very satisfied. Well above market.”

These reactions sound much happier than last year’s. But because we didn’t hear from many WH associates, we don’t know if our sources are representative. Please email us or text us (646-820-8477) if you want to share your views, and we’ll update this story.

Now, on to WH’s move away from performance-based compensation. Last week, the firm circulated a memo announcing a full return to the Simpson Thacher salary scale at all seniority levels — in other words, as one source succinctly said, “No more merit-based comp.”

WilmerHale isn’t alone in moving back towards lockstep. Last month, McDermott Will & Emery tweaked its own merit-based system to make it more lockstep-like, basically using the standard Simpson scale as a baseline and making total, bonus-inclusive comp “merit-based” (which, to be honest, doesn’t seem terribly different from what many firms with individualized bonuses do).

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We reached out to WilmerHale to see if it wanted to comment on its bonuses or its return to lockstep, but the firm didn’t get back to us. If you have any inside information about what’s going on at WH — we’ve heard various interesting things, unrelated to bonuses or comp — please email us or text us (646-820-8477). As always, we keep our sources anonymous (but might quote from your emails or texts in our stories, anonymously). Thanks.

Earlier: Biglaw Firm Announces New Base Salary Scale
Associate Bonus Watch (2014): WilmerHale’s Wily Ways?

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