Elite West Coast Biglaw Firm Comes To Play In The Compensation Game
The firm is spreading the wealth!
Woohoo! California-based powerhouse Orrick has announced they are providing associates with raises and special bonuses, just like the rest of their peers.
This summer has been a great one if you’re a Biglaw associate — at the most elite firms, natch — looking to put a dent in your student loans. The summer of raises started when Milbank thrilled the Biglaw world with new base compensation for associates. Not to be outdone, this was matched by Simpson Thacher, who topped those numbers with special bonuses. Cravath finally came to play, slightly increasing salaries from the Milbank scale for senior associates. All of which resulted in a Milbank/Simpson/Cravath scale, which Orrick has now met.
Law Firm Business Development Is More Than Relationship Building
There are some differences in how the special bonuses will be handled. No, it isn’t the numbers — those remain the same:
But associates will get half the special bonus now, then have to wait till the end of the year to get the full dollar amount. Sucks if you were thinking of lateraling this year, but given the number of associates and the mid-year cash flow issues some firms have, it’s at least understandable. The special bonus money will be in addition to end of the year bonuses, plus the firm seems pretty generous about hours requirement to receive the bonus:
We will work with your practice group leadership to award these special bonuses based on your overall contribution, including qualitative performance. For this special bonus, 1,850 client representation hours (annualized from December 1, 2017 (the start of our performance year) through May 31, 2018) will be our general guideline for hard work; however, hours alone are never the only determining factor in understanding performance and they won’t be here. Half of this bonus will be paid on July 13 and the other half with our usual year-end bonus award. If you do not qualify for this special bonus today, but finish the performance year strong, you will become eligible to receive the full special bonus then. We believe – and our conversations with you have affirmed — that this payment approach is the fairest way to award these bonuses, ensuring that your full-year contribution is considered. We are awarding these bonuses because we want you to be part of our team; and so for that and other reasons you will need to be employed with the firm at the time we make these bonus payments to receive them. Bonuses will be adjusted for start dates after December 1, 2017 and reduced hours arrangements (but not for leaves of any kind).
Sponsored
Curbing Client And Talent Loss With Productivity Tech
How The New Lexis+ AI App Empowers Lawyers On The Go
Law Firm Business Development Is More Than Relationship Building
Curbing Client And Talent Loss With Productivity Tech
But the real way the firm is showing that they want to reward the hard work of everyone at the firm is in spreading the wealth to career associates and project attorneys:
In addition, we will increase base salaries for career associates and project attorneys, recognizing the enormous contribution that these important and growing teams make to our clients and our firm.
Nicely done.
Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of this stuff. So when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Raises Salaries”). 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 (which is the alert list we’ll also use for salary announcements), 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. Thanks!
Sponsored
AI Presents Both Opportunities And Risks For Lawyers. Are You Prepared?
Happy Lawyers, Better Results The Key To Thriving In Tough Times
(Read the full memo from the firm on the next page.)
Kathryn 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).
