No Bonuses For First-Year Associates At This Biglaw Firm

Ouch! That's got to sting.

This year’s bonus season is a lot like last year’s bonus season, the bonus season the year before that, too. Save for some outliers at a few firms, associates have seemed generally happy with their cash hauls. With the latest bonus announcement, however, all of those good vibes seem to have come to a grinding halt as of Friday afternoon.

Which firm is depriving first-years of their first-ever Biglaw bonuses?

That would be Akin Gump, and first-year associates at the firm are furious. “No bonus for first-years with crushing student loan debt,” said a source affected by the firm’s refusal to offer even pro-rated bonuses for its new attorneys. To be quite frank, this is a bunch of horseshit. The firm’s gross revenue for the most recent Am Law 100 rankings was $980,000,000, with profits per partner of $2,100,000. The firm is the 36th highest grossing law firm in the world. With all of that money, Akin Gump can afford to pay its first-year associates a small pittance of a bonus this holiday season.

UPDATE (3:20 p.m.): Another source from the firm reached out to us in order to express a different point of view about the bonuses, or lack thereof, for first-years:

While I would of course love a bonus, it isn’t as bad as it initially seems. First, Akin counts our billable hours from January to December. This means for us first years our hours don’t count, either for us or against us, for the first 3 months or so we are working. While I would totally understand the opposite perspective, I don’t mind this because it has let me get introduced to the firm and get a warm up period before I have to start really watching the clock and grinding it out.

Also, they are going to pay off $100 a month to our student loans next year, so that will come out to about 1/3ish of a pro-rated first year bonus.

So again, while I’d love a bonus, I personally do not feel like it’s unfair.

Here’s what the firm’s bonuses look like for all other class years:

Class of 2016 – $15,000
Class of 2015 – $25,000
Class of 2014 – $50,000
Class of 2013 – $65,000
Class of 2012 – $80,000
Class of 2011 – $90,000
Class of 2010 – $100,000
Class of 2009 – $100,000

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According to the Akin Gump bonus memo, which is available on the next page, “[t]here is no hard and fast productivity level for receiving a bonus,” but associates should have about 1950 hours if they’d like to see some bonus money this year. Luckily, the firm will count pro bono hours as well as general counsel hours in associates’ productivity assessments, as well as business development hours, which is new this year. For associates who do receive bonuses at Akin Gump, the firm plans to reward “outstanding performers” with above-market bonuses for their class years, ranging from $5,000 – $25,000. Congratulations to all of the firm’s high-billers!

Our condolences go out to all of the first-year associates at Akin Gump; unfortunately, despite your huge debt loads, your checking accounts will be left achin’ for cash.

As a little reminder, we love covering the Biglaw bonus season, but we need your help. 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 at 646-820-8477. We look forward to hearing from you.

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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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