Associate Bonus And New Partner Watch: Susman Godfrey
Bonuses are down a little from last year, but they're still great, and the new partner class is large.
On the evening of December 1, the place to be for New York litigators was the Susman Godfrey holiday party. The food — catered by Daniel Boulud, who flew back from Tokyo to personally oversee the preparations — was fantastic, as always. The drink flowed liberally. The setting — the firm’s first year in its spectacular new offices — was better than ever. (The crisis of the evening: a shortage of olives at the bar, presumably due to excessive martini consumption.)
It’s not surprising that the firm was in a celebratory mood. Susman Godfrey once again had a strong year, reflected in bountiful bonuses. As reported by Vivia Chen of The Careerist:
Associates who’ve been at the firm six years are bagging a minimum of $120,000 in bonus, maxing out at $140,000 for those who’ve put in super long hours. That’s a $20,000 to $40,000 surplus over what Cravath, Swaine & Moore, which sets the industry standard, is paying its most senior associates (graduates of 2009 and earlier years).
Out-paying Cravath (and all other major firms) to get prized associates has long been a Susman strategy. But unlike Cravath, Susman pays out bonuses based on length of service at the firm rather than class year. Here’s the bonus scale at Susman:
Six years at firm:
$120,000 to $140,000 bonus (verus $100,000 for class year 2009 and earlier at Cravath).Five years at firm:
$105,000 minimum ($90,000 for class of 2010 at Cravath).Four years at firm:
$95,000 minimum ($80,000 for class of 2011 at Cravath).Three years at firm:
$85,000 minimum ($65,000 for class of 2012 at Cravath).Two years at firm:
$65,000 minimum ($50,000 for class of 2013 at Cravath).One year at firm:
$40,000 minimum ($25,000 for class of 2014 at Cravath).
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The class of 2014 is the relevant comparison for people who have been at Susman Godfrey for a year because the firm requires everyone to complete at least one clerkship (and many Susman Godfrey lawyers do two or more, including Supreme Court clerkships).
It is true, as noted by Chen, that these bonuses are down a little from last year. The top bonus in 2016 was $140,000, compared to $165,000 in 2015, and the lowest bonus in 2016 was $40,000, compared to $55,000 in 2015. Bill Carmody, head of the firm’s New York office, explained that this year wasn’t quite as good as last year for the firm. But even at these lower levels, Susman Godfrey bonuses are still way above the market scale (ranging from $15,000 to $100,000).
Furthermore, Susman Godfrey associates don’t have to worry as much about their bonuses because they are partners before they know it. “It’s a seven-year track,” Bill Carmody explained, “and since most everyone clerks for two years, that means you only have to be here for five years to be partner.”
UPDATE (6/8/2017, 2:27 p.m.): A clarification: one year of clerking gets counted against the track, but the second year of credit goes just to Supreme Court clerks.
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Which brings us to Susman Godfrey’s new partners. The firm elevated seven out of the eight associates up for consideration (with office location and law school noted parenthetically): Matt Behncke (Houston / Texas 2009), Amanda Bonn (Los Angeles / Stanford 2009), Jordan Connors (Seattle / Columbia 2008), John Lahad (Houston / Houston 2009), Oleg Elkhunovich (Los Angeles / Penn 2009), Weston O’Black (Houston 2008 / Houston), and Steven Shepard (New York / Yale 2007).
The new partners — one of the firm’s largest classes, according to Carmody — exhibit geographic diversity, with at least one lawyer coming from each of the firm’s four offices. They are a bit short on gender and racial or ethnic diversity — one woman, six white men — but as we’ve chronicled in these pages, Susman Godfrey is far from alone on that front. (Also, given the firm’s small size — it has around 114 lawyers in total — one could argue that achieving demographic diversity presents more of a challenge for SG compared to its Biglaw brethren.)
Congratulations to Susman Godfrey’s seven new partners, and congrats to its associates — i.e., its future partners — on the fantastic bonuses.
Susman’s Santa: Bonuses Up to $140K and Designer Canapés! [The Careerist / Am Law Daily]
Earlier: Associate Bonus Watch (2015): Susman Godfrey — Are These The Best Bonuses Of The Season?
Associate Bonus Watch (2014): Another Firm Beats The Market!
Associate Bonus Watch (2013): Susman Godfrey
Associate Bonus Watch (2012): Susman Godfrey
Associate Bonus Watch (2011): Susman Godfrey Pays Ten-Gallon Bonuses (and Announces New Partners)
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David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.
