Biglaw

Opening Up Sullivan & Cromwell's Bonus Black Box

This is what S&C associates think about their bonuses

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Biglaw bonus season wouldn’t be complete without a look at what the Sullivan & Cromwell partners were gifting their associates. The task for S&C is always a little tricky since they don’t issue a firm-wide memo letting everyone know exactly what to expect in their stockings. Instead each employee gets this email, letting them know what they’re going to get, but they receive no information about what they can expect in future years, should they stay with the firm:

I’m happy to inform you that you can view your personal compensation information, including your year end 2017 bonus, by clicking the link below. The bonus will be paid Wednesday, December 20.

On behalf of the partners at S&C, I would like to thank you for all your hard work throughout the year.

Best wishes for a safe and joyous holiday season.

So it is left to Above the Law and our network of tipsters to piece together what the bigger picture at S&C looks like. Based on the flood of tips that came in, it looks like S&C has done… exactly what the rest of the Biglaw market has done, matching the bonus scale set by Cravath last month.

What do the associates at S&C think about their bonuses? Well, the reaction is a little mixed, with some annoyed at how long it took to announce their bonuses:

No surprise, but people are miffed as to what took so long given Cravath and DPW announcing weeks ago. And it’s become a trend for S&C under the current regime.

Others are happy that the firm matched the market rate:

I’m not sure associates have been as busy as the past few years (at least in litigation) so nice to see bonus amounts not go down. Etc.

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And still others are kinda right in the middle and “satisfied” by their bonuses:

I’m satisfied with the amount. More is always better, but associate compensation is at a good place. Also nice that they are paid out Dec. 20th.

If you still have something to say about your S&C bonus, feel free to sound off by email, by text message (646-820-8477), or by tweet (@ATLblog). All complaints (or praise) will be kept anonymous — and could find its way into an update to this story.

Please help us help you when it comes to bonus news at other firms. 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.

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headshotKathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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