Associate Bonus Watch: Firm From The 'Good' Part Of Pennsylvania Matches
All Biglaw associates in Philly should feel good right now.
Philadelphia couldn’t single-handedly save Pennsylvania from itself. Not this time. The forces from the rest of the state were too strong. The enthusiasm gap was too wide. The suppression was too real.
At least lawyers living in Philadelphia can ask the bank to deliver their bonuses in 50,000 one-dollar bills, so they can roll around in it while screaming, “You’re not getting your coal plants back, you mouth-breathing idiots.”
Dechert matched the Cravath bonus scale this afternoon. Whether or not one has economically marketable skills has little to do with how many Mexicans are in the country, and more to do with whether you had the educational opportunities to land a good job. Dechert associates had that: this is but one of their many rewards. Other rewards include not getting your “news” from Alex Jones and understanding the limits of magical thinking.
Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance
Dechert was a little late to join the MoneyLaw club on raises, though it got there eventually. Today’s news — which came much faster than Dechert’s 2015 bonus announcement, some two weeks after Cravath — ends what suspense there was from its associates. There is a 1950 hours cutoff in order to be eligible for the bonus. But if you billed less than that, the whole “living your life” thing is kind of your bonus.
Moreover, Dechert is the first mover in the Philly market. Yes, we know — Dechert is now a global law firm — but it still plays a huge role in setting Philadelphia market comp. All Biglaw associates in that area should feel good right now. Seems like the Philly legal market still thinks of itself more like New York, and less like Alabama.
You can read the full bonus memo on the next page.
As bonus season rolls on, please remember to tell us when your firm’s bonus memo comes out, please email it to us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus”). We always keep our sources on bonus stories anonymous. There’s no need to send the memo using your firm email account; your personal email account is fine. 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 for your help.
Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance
The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
Don’t forget, if you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Bonus Alerts, please enter your email address in the box below. If you previously signed up for the bonus alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each bonus announcement that we publish. Enjoy the money, folks. It might be all we have left.
Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.
Sponsored
The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
Is The Future Of Law Distributed? Lessons From The Tech Adoption Curve
