Look Who's Coming To Play At The Compensation Party

There's always a catch.

Welcome to the land of raises and special bonuses, Mayer Brown associates! It may have taken the firm some time to get here, but everyone seems pretty glad they made it.

As is becoming almost standard among the top of the Biglaw field, they’ve decided to match the associate compensation structure set by the Big 3 (that’s the Milbank/Simpson/Cravath scale), which is comprised of increases (in the range of $10,000-$25,000) to the base salary for all associates, along with special summer bonuses, based on class year.

For those of you that may have, somehow forgotten what that scale looks like, here’s a primer:

But, there’s a catch. In order to get the raise associates must have billed 2000 hours last year (2017) in firm development hours. To get the special bonus they must have racked up the annualized equivalent of 1900 client chargeable hours through the end of June, though they will have the opportunity to make up those hours by the end of the year and get the money then.

In order to receive the salary increase and bonus payments, consistent with our usual practice, associates must be in good standing on the payment dates.  Full-time associates generally must have worked 2000 Firm Development hours in 2017 to be eligible for the salary increase.  To be eligible for the special bonus, full-time associates must have recorded the annualized equivalent of 1900 client chargeable hours as of the end of June 2018. Associates who do not meet this requirement now but do meet it at the end of the year will be eligible for the special bonus at year-end in addition to any normal bonus payable under our annual bonus policy. Individual bonus amounts may vary from this scale based on considerations such as overall performance and productivity.

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.

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(Read the full memo from the firm on the next page.)


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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