Biglaw Firm Announces Bonuses -- And Updates Their Salary Scale
It's no surprise this firm is ponying up the big bucks this year.
More bonus news from the halls of Biglaw!
On Monday, Sidley Austin announced the bonus schedule most associates could expect to see for all their hard work this year. As expected, Sidley’s bonuses fall in line with the scale first popularized by Cravath last week, though they do leave open the possibility that exceptionally high billers could see a little bit more holiday cheer.
The base bonus scale at Sidley this year:
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Throughout Biglaw this year the bonuses have matched — by class year — the amounts dispersed last year. But this is a case where old news is actually good news. Remember this summer associate salaries were raised and a number of firms also gave out special mid-year bonuses. Which means 2018 was a good year for associates.
Speaking of the summer’s salary wars, in the same memo announcing bonuses Sidley also updated their salary scale. Now, don’t get too excited. This doesn’t mean there are raises in the offing — a third-year will still make $220,000. But the class years have all gotten a bump up (as you might expect) and it’s a nice bit of clarity to know exactly when the firm considers you a third-year (versus a second-year) associate.
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(Read the full bonus memo on the next page.)
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.
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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. 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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