Associate Bonus Watch: The First Cravath Match Is Here!
Which firm was first to copy market leader Cravath?
Well, that was quick! Cravath Swaine & Moore announced bonuses at about 3:20 p.m. (EST), and now, less than 30 minutes later, at 3:45 p.m., a top Biglaw firm has matched the CSM scale. Wow!
As usual, Milbank Tweed is the first firm to match market leader Cravath. This marks the third year in a row that Milbank has been one of the first to hop on the Cravath bonus bandwagon. Here’s what one rather displeased associate had to say about the firm’s bonus announcement: “We were previously told that all metrics of profitability were up year over year, so a bit of a disappointment. Hoping for a raise by DPW.” People are getting tired of receiving the same bonus year after year, and all eyes are apparently on Davis Polk to beat the market and toss life vests made of money to associates, just like the firm did back in 2014.
Flip to the next page to see Milbank’s bonus memo. The Milbank bonuses will be paid “on or before” December 29, 2017. This date is slightly later than the Cravath payout date of December 15, which might be annoying from a holiday shopping perspective, but it’s not a huge difference. Plus, it’s before 2018, which is a new tax year — one that could have some pretty drastic effects on associates’ take-home pay.
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Congratulations, Milbank associates, on the “nice” year-end bonuses!
Remember: 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. You can also text us if you prefer, at 646-820-8477.
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Staci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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