As we’ve discussed before, Latham & Watkins can be a bit bipolar. Sometimes the firm is in manic mode, expanding and hiring and paying very generous bonuses. Then it sinks into depression, replete with freezing salaries and large-scale layoffs.
Right now L&W seems to be in happy mode. In recent weeks, it has announced true-up salary raises and opened new offices (in Houston and Beijing).
And today, fulfilling the hopes of many associates, it announced bonuses. Very generous bonuses — big enough to induce survivors’ guilt.
So, how big are the Latham & Watkins payouts?
Many law firm bonus announcements receive mixed reactions — some happiness, some “meh,” some disappointment (or even anger). But the LW tipsters we heard from were uniformly delighted by their payouts. From one:
Latham just announced bonuses! The numbers are way more than I expected. They posted the usual memo online with averages, medians, etc. The numbers more than make up for 2009! People seem really happy.
P.S. I’m a [midlevel] and got more than $50K. I know of other mid-levels who also received more than $50K.
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And a second:
I’m pretty psyched about my bonus. Bonus was more than $60k. Others seem happy here too. Last year was awful, but it’s nice to see the firm taking care of those of us still here.
Did the bonus payouts make up for the salary freeze, as we had heard they would? Apparently so:
Looks like they did the “make-whole” from the freeze — at least for folks who made their hours, I’m guessing. They didn’t specifically say anything about making up for the freeze, but [the memo] does say that “the bonus model is highly competitive and ensures that the vast majority of our associates are among the best paid in terms of total compensation.”
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And another:
In my particular case, I actually got more than I would have if they took into account the salary freeze. All I know is that people are really happy!
That’s consistent with this comment:
The vast majority of L&W associates who made hours got paid *more* in total 2009 compensation than their counterparts at every other firm save for Wachtell. Latham paid market bonuses + all lost salary from the freeze + a bit of a premium on top.
But there’s a caveat: you needed to hit 1900 hours to be eligible for a bonus. That requirement may have weeded out a lot of Latham associates, according to one source:
[I]t’s interesting to note [from the distribution table in the memo] that only 715 folks seem to have been awarded bonuses in the first place. I did a quick search of the firm’s facebook [i.e., intranet] and, roughly, not counting Class of 2009 associates, we have about 1141 associates world-wide, which gives you an idea of about how many, presumably, hit the 1900-hour mark to be bonus-eligible.
Based on this back-of-the-napkin calculation, maybe half of the Latham associates received the (rather generous) bonuses, and half received nothing. To the high billers go the spoils. That should surprise no one. As they say in the Mafia, “you gotta be an earner.”
Here is a table we’ve prepared comparing the 2009 Sullivan & Cromwell bonus scale with both average and median Latham bonuses:
CLASS YEAR — S&C SCALE — LATHAM MEAN — LATHAM MEDIAN
Class of 2008 — $ 7,500 — $ 9,058 — $ 7,500
Class of 2007 — $10,000 — $21,238 — $20,000
Class of 2006 — $15,000 — $32,900 — $30,000
Class of 2005 — $20,000 — $49,304 — $48,250
Class of 2004 — $25,000 — $51,668 — $51,000
Class of 2003 — $30,000 — $56,996 — $57,000
Class of 2002 — $35,000 — $57,228 — $56,500
And here are screenshots of the Latham & Watkins bonus memo (which the firm tried to protect — unsuccessfully — from dissemination). The memo contains the mean and median bonus amounts for each class year, as well as an overall distribution table.
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge. Enjoy!
Earlier: Associate Bonus Watch – 2009
