Most of our coverage of “market” compensation tracks the New York Biglaw scale. That’s the most elite American legal market and it’s where the top talent — all else equal — tends to flow. Those salaries generate the most excitement because everyone judges themselves based on where they pay relative to that high water mark.
In 2016, firms all over the country fell all over themselves to match that compensation structure. It’s how we ended up with associates in Charlotte able to buy mansions with New York paychecks.
Locke Lord just walked around its bonuses for the year and they are not matching the “market.” Top billers at some levels will be seeing a match, but generally, Locke Lord’s bonuses seem to be missing the Cravath scale generally by about 25-30 percent by our estimation based on a limited sample size.
Filevine’s New Legal AI Platform LOIS Turns AI Into A True Legal Coworker
Legal work isn’t slowing down, and the firms that win won’t be the ones working harder — they’ll be the ones working smarter.
Some might cry foul over this disparate treatment, but one associate with a well-developed sense of the big picture sent us this testimonial:
I think every time this time of year comes along there’s a twinge of jealousy for our NY brethren who get larger bonuses in the lockstep manner, but after about 30 seconds, I pack up to head home at a reasonable hour, in a nice car with no debt, to a house that I can easily afford, to a spouse who can work out of enjoyment rather than as a necessity, to talk about whether we should invest or donate most of the bonus because law school debt has already been paid off, and I say “God bless Texas and God bless Locke Lord.”
There’s more to the legal life than money. And there’s a lot more to life when you remember that even these “small” bonuses are still tens of thousands of dollars.
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.
Schenck Price Competes Smarter With Lexis+ With Protégé
LexisNexis sat down with John Ursin, Managing Partner at Schenck Price, to learn how the firm is using legal AI to strengthen client service and daily legal work.
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.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.