Biglaw, Bonuses, Money

Associate Bonus Watch: It's Raining Cold, Hard Cash At Debevoise

It's monsooning in the New York metropolitan area, and it looks like Biglaw firms have been inspired by the weather.

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Which firm is making it rain for associates?

Which firm is making it rain for associates?

It’s monsooning in the New York metropolitan area, and it looks like Biglaw firms have been inspired by the weather to make it rain cold, hard cash on their associates. About an hour and a half after this morning’s Simpson Thacher 9:00 a.m. Cravath match, Debevoise & Plimpton decided to issue a Cravath bonus match as well.

Debevoise is a great place to work, as reflected in its ratings on the ATL Insider Survey — respondents have given the firm an A- as an overall workplace and an A for reputation. But it’s not a compensation leader; if anything, it’s a compensation follower, as are many of the firms we may hear from today in terms of bonus news. The Debevoise bonus memo is available on the next page, and it’s worth mentioning that no specific payout date is listed; the memo merely states that bonuses are “payable at year-end.” If you know what that means, please reach out to us.

For what it’s worth, we will be creating a chart listing each firm that has matched, beaten, or come in lower than the Cravath bonus scale, and when each firm intends to pay its associates. In a year when we believe that most, if not all, firms will match Cravath, the difference will be the date on which payouts are made. We hope your firm pays your bonus dollars in 2016, because your tax situation may be different in 2017.

That’s our take on the Debevoise & Plimpton bonuses. If you’re a Debevoise lawyer, what do you think? Feel free to let us know how you feel by email, by text message (646-820-8477), or by tweet (@ATLblog). A fun or insightful response — we’ll keep you anonymous — could find its way into an update to this story.

As a little reminder, we love covering the Biglaw bonus season, but we need your help. As soon as 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.

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. Cheers to a happy bonus season, everyone!

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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. She’d love to hear from you, so feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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