The California-founded firms — note that careful phrasing, to reflect how they are now national, even global, enterprises — are announcing associate bonuses. Last week, we reported on bonus news from Cooley and Morrison & Foerster.
Late last week, associates at O’Melveny & Myers also learned their financial fate. Associates received a voicemail — the firm’s standard mode for communicating compensation-related news, such as last summer’s pay raise — explaining what to expect:
- Associates meeting the firm’s expectations regarding quality and productivity (informally, around 1900-1950 hours) will receive a standard bonus.
- The standard bonuses follow the market aka Cravath scale (although the voicemail did not refer to it in that way; instead, it just announced the various amounts for each class year).
- The firm will make upward adjustments to bonuses for factors including, but not limited to, quality, productivity, and citizenship.
- There was no mention of any below-market bonuses.
- Bonuses will be included in the last paycheck for February.
- Associates will learn of their individual bonus amounts in their reviews, which are now underway and should conclude before the end of the month.
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Reactions could change depending on how those individual reviews go — OMM associates, you know where to reach us — but for now, O’Melveny associates are (mostly) content:
- “Folks are happy with the announcement, but we’ll see how the mood will be once everyone gets their individual bonus numbers.”
- “I’d say we all just expected this. No one has been complaining, as far as I’ve heard.”
- “Partners are expected to communicate individual bonuses in reviews, which are just starting, so no real sense of reactions just yet beyond being generally pleased that we matched.”
- “The overall scale is welcome news…. I have not yet had my meeting, so I can’t really comment on my reaction just yet. I do, however, think it’s ridiculous that it takes them this long to announce and pay out the bonuses.”
- “There’s some confusion over what one exactly needs to do to hit bonus — informally, hours cutoff is 1950, but I’ve heard that there is some flexibility on that number, possibly based on how busy it was for individual groups.”
As for the upward adjustments or above-market bonuses, it’s not clear how large they are. As one source of ours said, “I don’t know of any specific amounts given above scale. I don’t think I would want to work enough to find out.”
Fair enough. Extra cash is nice, but you know what else is nice? Working in Biglaw and still having a life. And that seems possible at OMM, which according to Vault offers the best quality of life among large law firms.
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Bonus season is winding down, but it’s not yet over — so please help us help you. 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: Mo’ Money At MoFo
Associate Bonus Watch: No Memo, No Problem
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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 [email protected].