Biglaw, Bonuses, Money

Associate Bonus Watch: Nationwide Market Bonuses With Lower Billable Hours Thanks To A Merger

Partners decided to spread the wealth this year.

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Hundreds Falling onto Money StackFor Arnold & Porter, a D.C. powerhouse that agreed to merge with prominent New York firm Kaye Scholer earlier this quarter, it’s been a great year. The combined firm will officially be known as Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, effective January 1, 2017. Associates, however, were very nervous about what this would mean come bonus time, and rightfully so. As recently as last year, A&P paid below-market bonuses to offices outside of New York, and failed to disclose to associates that a negative monetary distinction would be made between those who had billed 2000 and 2200 hours. Here’s a representative tip we received from a source on associates’ anxiety in the lead-up to bonus time at the firm:

There’s a fear in the ranks that A&P will hold to its 2200 hour requirement for market bonuses. That wouldn’t have been unexpected in a normal year, but the merger with Kaye Scholer, a NY firm that pays market at 2000, will make things interesting. The firms are supposedly making independent bonus decisions this year. Imagine a scenario where A&P announces on Dec. 31 that associates will be paid market at 2200. Attorneys who billed 2000 will get 50% of market, which has been the standard for the last several years. Merger takes effect on Jan. 1. It likely won’t go over well when we receive half the amount our new colleagues are getting when bonuses are actually distributed in 2017.

Luckily for these nervous associates, Arnold & Porter decided to spread the wealth with market-matching bonuses across all of its offices for those who had at least 2000 hours (including up to 200 pro bono or business development hours). On top of standard bonuses, A&P will dole out higher bonuses of up to $120,000 to those who have “demonstrated excellence in the quality and nature of their work and an extraordinary level of productivity.” At Arnold & Porter, associates are considered extraordinarily productive at more than 2400 hours. Individual bonus memos will go out on January 3, and they will presumably be paid on the same day. Congrats to all A&P associates! It may have taken a merger to receive nationwide market bonuses, but you did it.

That’s our take on associate bonuses from Arnold & Porter. 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.

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!

(Flip to the next page to see the full bonus memo from Arnold & Porter.)

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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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