Texas Firm Hands Out Bonuses
Market match or not?
Haynes and Boone handed out individualized bonuses late last week, including the announcement of the summer bonuses, which the firm held up until the end of the year to see if lawyers made their targets. That kind of defeated the purpose of a “summer” bonus, but whatever.
At least some associates are satisfied with their haul:
Haynes and Boone released bonuses last night. Market match in Texas so long as you hit undefined “performance requirements.” We also had our summer bonuses included in EOY bonuses as long as you billed 2000 hours in the last 12 months. If you didn’t hit “performance requirements,” the firm still paid most people a bonus, but discounted from market. Laughing at the Locke Lord article you just posted where associates are okay with sub-market bonuses. You can still make market at a Texas-based firm, and Haynes and Boone once again proves it’s a market leader in this state! Summer bonuses and NY market bonuses in December… holiday cheer indeed!
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Sure, you can still make market at a Texas firm… you just shouldn’t make market at a Texas firm. The tipster refers to this article where a Locke Lord associate confesses satisfaction with being paid less in exchange for better hours and a lower cost of living. Seems like the Locke Lord lawyer fully understands the real value of the Texas market.
That said, Texas attorneys should still be making good money. Just because associates billing 2600 hours a year living in $3500/month studio apartments should be making more than Texans doesn’t mean Houston lawyers should be living in abject poverty. It’s still good work in a real city. But some Haynes and Boone folks are telling us the compensation isn’t really all its cracked up to be at the higher levels. For example, one senior associate explained that, even with above-target hours, the bonus is coming in around 80 percent of the market scale, and that coupled with the summer raise and bonuses disparities, the bonus is functionally less than 50 percent of what other firms are paying.
So it seems, at least at a certain level of seniority, that the Locke Lord associate working reasonable hours may have the last laugh after all.
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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.
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