Biglaw

Associates Billing Their Butts Off, Hoping For Last Year's Bountiful Bonuses

Soon their bank accounts will be stuffed like Thanksgiving turkeys.

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Could today be the day that kicks off the 2017 Biglaw bonus season? Based on your responses to our survey, the answer, unfortunately, is probably not. Only 5 percent of survey respondents thought this year’s Biglaw bonus bonanza would begin before Thanksgiving, as it did in 2014, when Simpson Thacher announced its bonuses ahead of the holiday (and perhaps even more notably, ahead of Cravath).

What will 2017 bonuses look like?

  • No change from 2016 bonuses (72%, 634 Votes)
  • Higher than 2016 bonuses (24%, 213 Votes)
  • Lower than 2016 bonuses (4%, 32 Votes)

Total Voters: 879

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Based on past precedent, it seems much more likely that bonuses will be announced on either Monday, November 27, or Monday, December 4. Cravath tends to stick a schedule as far as these things are concerned, and in recent years, it has announced its bonus news on either the last Monday in November or the first Monday in December. Either way, Biglaw associates can soon look forward to their bank accounts being stuffed like the Thanksgiving turkeys they’ll gobble down later this week.

While associates are busy counting down the hours until B-Day, they’re likely even busier counting up the hours they’re on track to bill in 2017 to meet their targets for bonus eligibility. Last year, many firms announced increased billing requirements to go hand in hand with their increased salaries, and some associates continue to scramble to make up the difference. That being said, a whopping 70 percent of survey respondents are on track to bill 2000 hours or more in 2017.

Here are the full results from our survey:

How many hours are you on track to bill in 2017?

  • More than 2400 (19%, 225 Votes)
  • 2000 - 2099 (18%, 211 Votes)
  • 2100 - 2199 (14%, 169 Votes)
  • 2200 - 2299 (11%, 125 Votes)
  • 1900 - 1999 (10%, 123 Votes)
  • 1800 - 1899 (8%, 93 Votes)
  • 2300 - 2399 (8%, 89 Votes)
  • Fewer than 1600 (6%, 66 Votes)
  • 1700 - 1799 (4%, 50 Votes)
  • 1600 - 1699 (2%, 28 Votes)

Total Voters: 1,179

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Remember these strong numbers when bonuses begin to hit bank accounts. You may have worked your Biglaw bums off, but 72 percent of survey respondents thought that this year’s bonuses would be no different than last year’s bonuses. Keep this in mind: Instead of complaining, be thankful that your salary is larger than it ever was before and that you’re receiving very generous bonuses on top of it.

As a little reminder, we love covering the Biglaw bonus season, but we need your help. 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. Thanks for your help.

Don’t forget, if you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Bonus Alerts, please enter your email address in the box below. 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 — including, of course, the first such announcement.

Keep your fingers crossed for happy bonus news this season! Happy Thanksgiving!

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Earlier: Associate Bonus Watch: Bonus Season Is Coming…

Staci ZaretskyStaci 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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