Biglaw, Bonuses, Money

Associate Bonus Watch: More Money At McDermott

Associates at the firm are much, much happier this time around.

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MoneyWe’re well into the “new” year by now (and yesterday was the first day of spring, in fact). But we’re happy to report that the “year of atonement” trend in Biglaw bonuses has carried over into 2016.

Last year, associates at McDermott Will & Emery couldn’t quite agree on whether the MWE bonuses were “very generous” or “underwhelming.” This year, on the other hand, opinion is fairly uniform — and positive.

We’ll start with the facts then proceed to the opinions. Here’s a report from Law360:

More than half of McDermott Will & Emery LLP associates based in the U.S. will receive bonuses above the market rate — by as much as $45,000 in some cases, the firm said Friday.

A substantial number of associates received bonuses above the market benchmark for the sixth straight year, the firm said in a Thursday memo shared with Law360. Individual bonuses were based on evaluations of associates’ performances, including quality of work and productivity.

We have posted the memo, sent by compensation chair John P. Hendrickson, on the next page. Hendrickson notes that “this year 55% of our U.S. Associates will receive bonuses in excess of the Cravath scale, including Associates in each of the seven compensation class years in which we award bonuses.” (Note that McDermott recently changed its approach to base compensation.)

Here are some opinions on the McDermott bonuses that we received from more than satisfied associates:

  • “I’m happy. Technically wasn’t eligible because I missed hours, but [I got something] when I expected nothing.”
  • “My sense is that most people are happy. For example, the two first-year associates I spoke with were $7,500 and $12,500 above market respectively. The firm announced that many associates exceeded NY market by as much as $45,000. If you had high billables and good reviews it was not unreasonable to nearly double market bonus in many cases.”
  • “Everyone I spoke with is happy, and at or above market.”
  • “Everyone seems pretty happy with bonuses…. I was below 2000 hours but received above market.”
  • “Beat market. My [spouse who works at MWE] was very pleased – a partner even called to [ask how my spouse felt about the bonus], which was nice.”

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Very nice indeed. And props to MWE for enhancing associate bonuses even though firm revenue remained flat. According to Law360, last month the firm reported that revenues declined by a little under a percentage point, from $900 million in 2014 to $891.5 million in 2015.

We believe there are still a few more bonus announcements that either haven’t been made or that haven’t been covered in our pages. If you can help us out, please reach out by email or by text message (646-820-8477). Thanks.

(Flip to the next page for the McDermott Will bonus memo.)

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