Biglaw, Bonuses, Money

Associate Bonus Watch: Boies Schiller's Bounty

One shouldn't paint the BSF bonuses with too broad a brush, but overall, people seem pleased.

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money exchangeIn years past, we have heaped praise upon the generous bonuses of Boies Schiller & Flexner, the celebrated, litigaton-focused firm founded by the renowned David Boies (recently named the most famous practicing lawyer in America).

The 2016 BSF bonuses came out today, and the amounts were generous — which is not surprising, because the firm’s compensation scheme hasn’t changed. People seem happy (as we’ll discuss more below).

But here at Above the Law, we welcome opposing viewpoints and seek to publish all sides of a story (to the extent that they exist). So before turning to this year’s bonuses, let’s hear some dissenters from our prior coverage. For example:

Based largely on somewhat misleading articles from this site, the firm has a reputation for being compensation leaders. If you are a crazy high biller, you beat market here, but otherwise we’re about at market. (Others who get the high bonuses work on contingency, with all the risk that entails, plus the several years of building up your lodestar with no annual bonuses.) The thing is, we work on a “formula,” so to give us a [base salary] raise they’ll have to change the formula. The hope is that the complications of doing this is delaying the raise. But if the silence continues, I’m out of here.

It should surprise no one to hear that big billers at Boies fare the best. As we’ve explained in the past, BSF employs a comp system in which an individual associate shares directly in the revenue her work produces for the firm. So if she bills insane hours or works on a lucrative contingency-fee case, she can get a bonus as high as $350,000. But if not, it’s possible she might end up getting market-level comp (which is really not that bad, if it means working better hours).

A second source echoed these concerns, noting that Boies Schiller typically quotes average bonus figures to ATL as opposed to median bonus figures for each class. According to this tipster, the average bonus amounts are skewed upward by “extreme outliers” with high hours, contingency-fee participation, or business-generation credit, and median bonus figures are much closer to market rates.

As for the issue of base salaries, Boies Schiller did raise salaries post-Cravath, to a new scale starting at $180,000, going up to $300,000, and beating the Cravath scale by a little bit for certain years in between. But because of the BSF comp system, in which a base salary is functionally an advance on the revenue an associate generates for the firm, bigger base salaries should in theory result in smaller bonuses (unless the formula gets changed to raise the rev share for associates; we understand it hasn’t been changed).

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(An aside on base salaries: we understand that the raises applied to certain offices — including, but not limited to, New York City, Armonk, D.C., Oakland, and Los Angeles — but not to all Boies Schiller offices. We heard from one angry associate in Fort Lauderdale who complained that this office did not get raises: “People here are really upset. It is upsetting they promised us New York pay scales, we took the job, and now they’re reneging…. BSF used to be the best legal job in Florida. It no longer is. Weil, Baker, Hughes, McDermott, and Kaye are all paying NY salaries in Florida. Couple that with BSF Florida not really receiving the massive New York-style bonuses, and BSF Florida is no longer the most attractive job in Florida. If BSF wants to treat Florida different, they should do so openly. Not try to keep their reputation as a compensation leader by quietly cheating their associates.”)

Now, on to the 2016 bonuses. Our sources might not be representative — if you work at Boies Schiller and want to make your voice heard, please email us or text us (646-820-8477) — but here’s what we’re hearing (we’ve made hours and bonuses a little vague to protect anonymity):

  • “Junior associate. We got bonuses this morning. I’m on pace to bill more than 2400 hours. My bonus was more than $100,000. No memo or announcement yet, just money in my bank account.”
  • “Midlevel associate. My bonus was roughly 25 percent higher than the Cravath scale for fairly light hours, no trials, and no all-nighters. Others who went to trial or simply had heavy hours blew away the Cravath scale.”
  • “Senior associate. Bonus more than $150K.”

For comparison purposes, the Cravath bonus scale starts at $15,000 and tops out at $100,000. So it seems that Boies bonuses are way higher as a general matter. But as noted earlier, your mileage may vary, depending on your hours, involvement in contingency cases, and business-generation credit (if any). Working at BSF is no guarantee of market-destroying compensation each and every year.

Now that we’ve given you the necessary caveats, let’s hear reactions from our Boies Schiller tipsters. The bottom line is that they’re quite pleased:

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  • “Very happy. More than I expected. Don’t want to speak for others.”
  • “While I would love more transparency around the comp system, I feel very fortunate to work here.”
  • “Unlike the system at other firms, our formula compensation system means there is a direct relationship between salary and bonus. After the salary bump, there was some trepidation about reduced bonuses. It’s hard to see behind the curtain, either in individual cases or in the aggregate, but the associates with whom I’ve spoken are relieved that bonuses remain ‘above market,’ even though salaries are basically ‘at market’ for the first time in years. (Salaries used to be well above market for all class years.) You can’t really paint our bonuses with a broad brush, but it is still possible for junior associates to get a $100k bonus at BSF. It does seem to even out a bit after a few years; senior associates can handily beat Cravath, too, but it’s difficult for them to break above $150k or so based solely on billing hours. Possible, but very difficult. Bonuses above that often reflect business generation credit or a big contingency win.”

UPDATE (3:38 p.m.): Another reaction: “Midlevel associate at BSF – I would have gotten significantly more of a bonus on the Cravath scale for fewer hours at other firms. But, nonetheless, I agree with another tipster who wrote, ‘while I would love more transparency around the comp system, I feel very fortunate to work here.'”

Congratulations to the associates of Boies Schiller & Flexner on the nice bonuses — to the extent that they find them “nice,” that is. Compensation will vary greatly from associate to associate. As reflected in BSF’s high use of contingency fees compared to other Biglaw firms, its clients often prefer to pay for performance — and when it comes to associate pay, the firm apparently feels the same way.

Please help us help you when it comes to bonus news at other firms. As soon as your firm’s bonus memo comes out, please email it to us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus”) or text us (646-820-8477). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.

And if you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Bonus Alerts, please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. 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.

Earlier: Will These Above-Market Salary Hikes Hurt This Firm’s Bonuses?
Associate Bonus Watch (2015): Boies Schiller Pays Up To $350K (Again)
Associate Bonus Watch (2014): Boies Schiller Pays Up To $350K
Associate Bonus Watch (2013): A $300K Bonus At Boies Schiller
Associate Bonus Watch (2012): Big Bucks at Boies Schiller
Associate Bonus Watch (2011): Boies Schiller Shellacks Cravath
Associate Bonus Watch (2010): Boies Schiller Sets the Bonus Bar
Associate Bonus Watch (2009): Boies Will Be Boies

DBL square headshotDavid 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.

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