Associate Bonus Watch: Final Magic Circle Firm Pulls $100K Out Of Its Hat

Associates must be enchanted by these huge wads of cash.

onDecember 2, 2016 at 9:35 AM

Magic Touch First came Allen & Overy, followed quickly by Freshfields and later Clifford Chance. Now, the final Magic Circle firm with U.S. offices has come to the stage to enchant and mystify its associates by pulling wads of cash out of its top hat.

Last night, in a memorandum emailed from global head of U.S. practice Scott Bowie, Linklaters announced that it would be matching the Cravath bonus scale for all of its U.S. associates, worldwide. Bonus payouts to associates will be made on December 30, 2016. The firm took so “long” to announce its bonuses this week that it didn’t even feel the need to include the relevant scale in its memo. The full memo is available on the next page.

That’s our take on the Linklaters bonuses. If you’re a lawyer at the firm, 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.

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Staci 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.