Associate Bonus Watch: Huge Smiles At A Huge Law Firm
One of the world's five largest firms announces its bonuses.
DLA Piper is B-I-G big. Boasting almost 3,800 lawyers at last count, it’s the world’s fourth-largest law firm. So its bonus announcement, issued last week, affects many, many lawyers.
Which is why it’s so surprising that we’ve heard from so few sources. The ones we have heard from are pleased:
- “Midlevel associate, secondary market — hit my hours through a combination of billable and pro bono — got a ‘market’ bonus. Very happy.”
- “Happy.”
- “Seems to match Cravath. Associates are happy. Firmwide associates’ committee is sending around a survey to be completed and then we will have more numbers.”
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These reactions are consistent with the operative language from the memo:
2016 Bonuses. Bonuses again were determined based on seniority, performance rating and total bonus hours (including billable, billable equivalent, shadowing, and pro bono hours), with the top bonuses being awarded to the highest rated associates with the highest hours. The vast majority of our high performing associates will receive bonuses at or above the widely published “market” scale. As in the past, bonuses may be reduced due to certain performance or other management concerns.
The firm retains discretion to pay above or below the market, but it sounds like market matches for most. And people seem to be fine with that, making for a second year in a row of good bonuses at the firm.
Are our sources a representative sample of DLA Piper sentiment? That’s always the challenge for bonus coverage. We could end up updating this story, or posting a new story, if we get some of those survey results from the associates’ committee, or if we hear from additional tipsters. But as of now, when it comes to DLA Piper sources, that’s all they wrote.
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Any bonus announcements still floating around out there? Bueller? Bueller?
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: Associate Bonus Watch (2015): A Giant Law Firm Exceeds Its Associates’ Expectations
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David 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.
