Another Litigation Boutique With Market-Beating Bonuses
The top bonus was an eye-popping $430,000 (but there is a catch).
One of the big trends of the past decade or so in the world of top-tier private practice has been what I’d call “The Rise of the Boutiques.” Partners have left top-tier Biglaw firms to start their own elite small firms — and many of them have thrived.
These boutiques have been sharing their wealth with their associates, often meeting or beating the Cravath scale. Litigation boutiques offering market or above-market bonuses this year include Kaplan & Company, Holwell Shuster & Goldberg, Wilkinson Walsh + Eskovitz, Hueston Hennigan, and Susman Godfrey. (Check out our associate compensation scorecard for a comprehensive list of bonus announcements.)
The newest addition to the club is a firm that should be familiar to devoted Above the Law readers: Bursor & Fisher. As many of you might recall, name partner Scott Bursor successfully represented Faruqi & Faruqi and its founding partners, siblings Nadeem and Lubna Faruqi, in the sexual harassment lawsuit filed by former Faruqi associate Alexandra Marchuk. The case went to jury trial, and in the end, in the words of one juror I interviewed, “We didn’t buy her story.”
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One wonders how the case would have turned out had it gone to trial after the start of our current national reckoning with issues of sexual misconduct. Marchuk supporters would probably argue that she would have prevailed and that her case was “ahead of its time”; Faruqi supporters would respond that not all claims of sexual harassment are valid — and that invalid ones do a disservice to the many that are well-founded.
In any event, the Marchuk case does show how clients turn to Bursor & Fisher during times of crisis — and how Scott Bursor and his colleagues deliver great results. And for these victories, they are paid well. In terms of associate bonuses:
1. Associate bonuses at Bursor & Fisher ranged from $25,000 to $430,000. They were paid earlier this week.
2. Scott Bursor informed lawyers of their bonuses during the firm’s year-end reviews, which were held at the Fountainebleu Hotel in Miami Beach from December 6 to 10. (All lawyers and staff were flown to Miami and put up at the Fontainebleau for four nights.)
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3. The bonus system is not lockstep. Instead, bonuses are based on criteria like business origination and revenue.
4. Every lawyer who has been with the firm for at least two years earned a bonus of $100,000 or more. The top bonus, $430,000, went to a fourth-year associate who brought in a big class action settlement this year. A first-year associate received a $50,000 bonus.
5. Bonuses at every level were well above the “Cravath scale.”
A $430,000 bonus sounds pretty awesome, doesn’t it? But there’s a catch: base salaries are below the Cravath scale. Instead, Bursor & Fisher associates earn a base salary of $100,000, with the majority of their compensation coming from the year-end bonus. This compensation model is more like Wall Street than Biglaw, where people are paid for performance rather than seniority.
The risk-averse might not like it — but if you’re entrepreneurial and believe in yourself, a firm like Bursor & Fisher might be the place for you. And according to Scott Bursor, his associates tend to beat the market even in total compensation after they’ve been with the firm for a few years.
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“This year was pretty typical for us,” Bursor said. “Our bonuses have historically been well above the Cravath scale. By year three our associates are usually earning six-figure bonuses that put their total compensation way above their counterparts at big New York law firms.”
Remember also that practicing law isn’t all about the benjamins. It’s also about the types of matters you work on, and the people you work on them with — and on that score, it sounds like Bursor & Fisher lawyers are happy campers.
“I truly enjoy working here,” one associate told me. “The experience and assignments I’m getting are far more advanced than that of my peers in Biglaw. And to see that hands-on experience translate into courtroom success is really gratifying. This year we won three motions for class certification in federal courts. We also won summary judgment for the plaintiff in a class action against Hearst. We don’t lose much. And winning is a lot of fun.”
“Also, working alongside Scott Bursor is a great education,” this lawyer added. “Scott teaches by example, and it’s pretty special to watch how he develops the litigation strategies and then executes on them.”
Congratulations to Bursor & Fisher on another strong year, and congrats to its associates on the nice bonuses.
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Earlier: Associate Compensation Scorecard (2017): Which Firms Have Announced Bonuses?
David Lat is editor at large and founding editor of Above the Law, as well as 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.
