Thanks to everyone who responded to our recent request for information about 2011 bonuses at Morgan Lewis & Bockius. Here’s our report on bonuses at MLB.
As you may recall, Morgan Lewis pays individualized bonuses, so there’s no tidy table as there is for lockstep firms. Feel free to use this post as an open thread for MLB bonuses — you can compare amounts anonymously, in the comments.
How are Morgan Lewis associates feeling about their bonuses? We’ll get the ball rolling with some tips that we’ve received….
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Morgan Lewis & Bucks-ius”
Remember when Biglaw associates in New York got paid more than Biglaw associates everywhere else because it costs more money to live in New York than anywhere else? Yeah, those days are long gone. A few months ago, we pointed out that the NALP buying power index ranked the purchasing power of New York associates 42nd nationwide.
Maybe you didn’t believe NALP’s numbers?
Well, today we offer more evidence that if you are an associate working and living in New York, you are a chump. You are paying a higher cost of living than anywhere else in the country, and you’re not getting paid any more for the effort. In fact, if you work at Morrison & Foerster, you might be getting a smaller bonus just because you work in New York….
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Did MoFo Just Use Cravath as an Excuse to Screw Over New York Associates?”
Congratulations to Bingham McCutchen, which recently earned a spot on Fortune’s best companies to work for — for the eighth year in a row. And congratulations to Bingham’s nine new partners. It’s a very international group: these seven men and two women work out of London (3), New York (3), Hong Kong (1), Boston (1), and Hartford (1).
And congratulations to high-billing associates at Bingham. They were rewarded with “extraordinary” bonuses, as set forth in the firm’s bonus memo….
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Bingham McCutchen’s ‘Extraordinary’ Bonuses”
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has been a leader in instituting a merit-based compensation system. Two aspects of their system make Orrick’s commitment to merit-based seem genuine:
1) Partners put in significant time so that merit evaluations are more than just hours cut-offs.
2) Orrick is transparent about how many people get paid.
You can’t run a merit-based system with a Jones Day-like approach to transparency without everybody feeling like they are secretly getting screwed. If you do it out in the open, at least the low-hanging fruit will know that other, better work paid off for others in their class.
So let’s look at the memo. While Orrick generally does a good job of looking at associate productivity instead of mere man-hours, make no mistake, the firm still wants you to bill, and in a timely fashion….
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Orrick’s Merit-Based Matrix Continues to Be the Most Transparent”
Last year, Sullivan & Cromwell announced spring bonuses on January 21st. Today is February 3rd. It might be time to panic.
The conceit of this entire bonus season has been that the ridiculously low bonuses bar set by Cravath, Swaine & Moore was just an opening figure. People really didn’t expect that Cravath would halve bonuses. I mean, it’s CSM. They can count. Their profits went up. Why would they pay out 50% less than last year?
Well, I guess the answer “because they can” is going to have to be enough for Biglaw associates everywhere….
Continue reading “Spring Bonuses? Anybody? The Silence Isn’t Funny Anymore.”
Today everyone’s talking tech, thanks to Facebook’s upcoming IPO. In light of how Silicon Valley is dominating the news cycle, it seems fitting to discuss the recent bonus and salary news from Wilson Sonsini — one of SV’s top firms, and counsel over the years to many startup companies turned tech giants.
(But not Facebook, at least with respect to the IPO. That’s being handled by Fenwick & West and Simpson Thacher.)
So what kind of bonuses did WSGR just announce? Let’s find out….
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Wilson Sonsini Announces Bonuses and Base Salary Scale”
I was getting a little worried yesterday about the state of Biglaw bonuses. But a new day brings a new hope. Yesterday, Law360 (subscription req.) reported that Finnegan broke off a huge bonus payment that once again highlights how cheap Cravath and other Biglaw firms following Cravath have been this season.
Don’t get me wrong, Finnegan is a smallish “boutique” firm. And their bonuses are merit based as opposed to lockstep. It’s exactly the kind of place where they can post an eye-popping top number for the highest performing associates, while the rank and file aren’t doing all that well.
But even if Finnegan’s bonuses aren’t quite as magnificent as the firm would like you to believe, they still look impressive when compared to the low numbers Cravath and other lockstep followers have been dishing out. Eventually, you have to think that some of Cravath’s top talent will leave and try their hand someplace where their talents and hard work will be rewarded with cash….
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Finnegan Deals Nice Merit Bonuses to the Worthy”
In case you were wondering, it’s pretty much time to panic about the lack of spring bonuses. Believe it or not, Biglaw could actually allow bonuses to go down despite soaring profits. But that’s a post for another day.
The bad news today is that after a trend of firms easily topping the low bonuses set by the former “market leaders” at Cravath, we’re now looking at a firm that claims it is top tier, but is paying demonstrably less than the already sad CSM bonus amount.
Well, check that, if you bill upwards of 2400 hours at the firm, you might make a little more than your counterparts at Cravath. And hell, if you bill upwards of 2800 hours, you might really do well for yourself (which should help with the alimony payments after your spouse divorces you). But if you are just a standard, 2000 hour biller, the firm didn’t even match Cravath.
I don’t know, maybe making a pathetic bonus payment isn’t so much of an issue in Washington, D.C.?
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Finally, Someone Is Paying Less Than Cravath”
Well, spring bonuses are officially late. Last year, Sullivan & Cromwell announced spring bonuses on January 21. Here we are on January 23rd, and we’re still waiting.
It’s too early to worry. Cravath essentially check-raised S&C with spring bonuses last year. There’s a good chance S&C is just trying to figure out how to avoid having that happen again.
I still think spring bonuses will be coming. There are just too many firms paying out more than Cravath in terms of bonus. Cravath partners might be getting high fives from partners around Biglaw for helping to keep bonuses low. But there are so many firms blowing past Cravath (and Cravath followers) that, eventually, the very smart people Cravath hires will wake up and realize they can make more money elsewhere.
The latest firm to make Cravath bonuses look small is Latham & Watkins. Their median bonus is especially more generous than CSM’s as people become midlevel or senior associates….
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Latham Bonus Out, No Word on Spring Bonuses”
Tomorrow, associates at Goodwin Procter will receive individualized news of their bonuses. You may recall that last month, when ATL’s new director of research, Brian Dalton, compiled a list of Biglaw’s ten most generous firms — i.e., the ten firms that pay the best bonuses, when measured against their profits per partner — Goodwin did good, winning fourth place. (The firm fares well in rankings; last month, it made Crain’s list of best places to work in New York.)
Will this year’s bonuses preserve Goodwin’s good standing? Let’s find out. Although the individual amounts are being communicated tomorrow, the firm has outlined its overall approach in a memo….
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Goodwin Procter Makes Good”
At the start of this new year, what is the outlook like for legal employment? There’s certainly a fair amount of bad news out there, particularly for recent law school graduates.
But what about for denizens of Biglaw, the lawyers fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to work at the nation’s largest law firms? What does 2012 hold for them?
Earlier this month, my colleague Elie made some predictions for the legal profession. I will follow in his footsteps and venture some prophecies of my own for the year….
Continue reading “Is the Legal Recession Finally Ending?”
We’re still catching up on bonus news that broke over the holidays. Remember, if we missed your firm, please let us know at tips@abovethelaw.com.
Just after Christmas, Dechert announced its 2011 end-of-year bonuses. I guess you’d call it a “match” of the Cleary Gottlieb scale. Dechert is paying a pro-rated bonus to first-year associates and has a top payment of $42,500 for very senior associates.
But Dechert isn’t a lockstep firm. You have to meet a requirement in order to get the bonus. That requirement looks very much like an hours requirement, but Dechert doesn’t want you (or its clients) to think that they have an hours requirement — so they have some kind of nebulous performance requirement that can most easily be defined with reference to hours.
Oh, and they’ll dock you if you didn’t input your time, on time, throughout the year….
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Dechert’s Bonus Is Contingent On Something That Sure Sounds Like Billable Hours”
As we recently mentioned, our view is “better late than never” when it comes to bonus news. With this in mind, we are pleased to bring you the bonus announcement of Willkie Farr — which came out in December.
Given Willkie Farr’s status as a top New York law firm, you can probably guess what they did in terms of bonuses….
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Willkie Farr”
The pace of announcements may have slowed down a bit, but make no mistake: we’re still in associate bonus season. If you have bonus news that we haven’t covered, even announcements dating back to last month, please email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus Memo”). We’re trying to keep as accurate a record as we can of Biglaw bonuses, but we can’t do it without your help. Please don’t assume that someone else will send in the memo; that’s not always the case.
Now, on to today’s bonus news, which comes to us from Kasowitz Benson. The litigation powerhouse, which describes itself as “a national law firm primarily focusing on complex and sophisticated commercial litigation, numbering 375 lawyers,” announced its bonuses last Thursday, January 5.
So how much is Uncle Marc paying to the superior legal minds who work for him?
UPDATE (3:20 PM): Speaking of Gregory Berry, Justice Eileen Bransten of New York State Supreme Court just dismissed Berry’s $77 million lawsuit against Kasowitz.
UPDATE (1/10/12): Read all about the dismissal here.
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Kasowitz Rewards Superior Legal Minds”
As we’ve been saying, it’s not that hard to give your associates a better bonus than what they’re doling out at Cravath. At the elite California firm of Irell & Manella, they do it every year.
Once again, Irell has issued bonuses that put Cravath’s to shame. No muss, no fuss — multiple sources tell us the the bonuses were much bigger than the Cravath bonuses.
So how much bigger are we talking about?
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Irell Whacks Cravath, Again”
As we get back to our regularly scheduled programming, it’s pretty obvious that bonus season has gotten a little bit ragged. This is what happens when the overdog, Cravath, fails to set bonuses at reasonable levels: firms get confused and try to do things to make it look like they’re clearing the ridiculously low bar Cravath has set. There are so many firms now with some kind of performance or hours mark that will allow at least one of their associates to say, “I made more this year than if I was working at Cravath.”
And that’s just the firms that have announced already. Other firms seem to be waiting to make their “year-end” bonus announcement because they don’t want to have to go back and dole out more money once somebody gets around to announcing spring bonuses. While it might be fun for Cravath and Sullivan & Cromwell to play chicken over who will announce spring bonuses first, there are a whole bunch of firms that are just sitting around waiting to find out how much they are going to have to pay.
And there are a bunch of associates who are starting to wonder if they’ll be getting any kind of bonus at all.
So who did we miss? Who still owes you a bonus announcement?
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Who’s Still Waiting for Their Bonus Announcement?”
Christmas 2011 turned out to be a banner year for retailers, and most consumers felt pretty confident about the economy — but don’t tell that to the lawyers. The results are in and the vast majority of survey respondents aren’t purchasing anything fun with their bonuses.
Unlike Elie, 52% of Above the Law readers are using their year-end bonuses to pay their loan-shark student loan provider. 21% of survey respondents plan on using their “generous” bonuses to purchase something to help advance their career (lips are especially chapped in the winter months). The third largest group, at 9%, feels a little better about the housing market, and is planning on purchasing their little piece of heaven (or if they are in NYC, their very, very, very, very, very little piece heaven).
Close behind, 8% of folks who responded to our survey are calling it quits, and plan on using their bonus checks to buy a nice pair of dancing shoes and leave the practice altogether. Survey respondents were not as excited about the new Apple iPhone 4, as only 5% of people were going to use their bonuses to go wait in line at the Apple store or pepper spray their way into the neighborhood Walmart.
The three ghosts of Christmas only stopped by the homes of a small number of associates this year, as only 4% of responders to our survey planned on donating their bonuses to charity. Finally, less than 2% of survey respondents felt the need to play the lottery by investing in the stock market.
It's pronounced 'Mystal' like 'Cristal,' not to be confused with Elie's crystal ball.
Welcome back to work. I’m not going to act like a flight attendant and “welcome” you to a place we all got to at the exact same time, but I do hope your 2012 is starting off well.
In case you missed it on New Year’s Eve, we took a look back at our biggest stories of 2011. Now, let’s turn our gaze to the future. What do you think will happen in 2012?
I’ll get us started: The world will not end, nor be impacted in any special way on December 21, 2012….
Continue reading “2012 Predictions: ATL’s Calendar Goes All the Way to 2013″
In our recent post on the top 10 most generous large law firms — based on analysis by ATL’s new director of research, Brian Dalton — the firm of Hogan Lovells placed second. Under the rankings, this meant that Hogan partners are taking the second-biggest hit to their own bottom lines in order to keep their associates happy and well-compensated.
But is this still the case today? Based on what we’re hearing about the most recent Hogan bonuses, announced shortly before Christmas, one wonders whether the Ho-Love partners have turned from Santas into Scrooges….
Continue reading “Associate Bonus Watch: Hogan Lovells”
‘Twas the night before bonuses, and all through New York Empire, not a creature was stirring, not even a Wall Street Occupier.
Direct deposit accounts were set up with care, in the hopes that fat bonuses soon would be there.
The associates were nestled all snug in their cubicles, while nightmares loomed of bonuses paid out in rubles.
And secretaries in underwear, and partners in slacks, had finished some last minute work on their backs.
When out on the blogosphere there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my Lawyerly Lair to see what was the matter.
Away to the BlackBerry I fingered like mad, to see if the news would make me sad, neutral, or glad.
With a few short clicks I made it on Above the Law, to see if I should hit should Lat square in the jaw….
Continue reading “Career Center: The Night Before Bonus Season – A Survey”
