Biglaw

Biglaw Firm Announces Bonuses, But Not Every Associate Is Taking Home Money

To their credit, at least the firm is transparent about their bonus process.

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Here’s the thing about bonuses at Goodwin Procter: not every associate is going to take home a bonus. To their credit, the firm is transparent about their bonus process, so there shouldn’t be too many unfortunate surprises this bonus season. For bonuses based on 2016 work, only 68 percent received bonuses, and for 2017 work, there was an uptick to 77 percent getting bonuses. Now comes their announcement for 2018 bonuses, and there’s another uptick but still a far cry from the firms that have no hard hours requirements and are lockstep bonuses.

According to an email sent last week by William Weiss, chair of the Attorney Review Committee, 83 percent of associates will be getting bonuses this year:

This year, 83% of associates are eligible to receive bonuses.  Of those receiving bonuses, 37% will receive an amount greater than the amount listed for their class, 60% will receive their class amount, and 3% will receive less than their class amount.

The bonus scale at the firm matches the familiar one established by Cravath in November:

The hours requirement at the firm is 1,950 hours, and from there associates can either scale up or down from the standard bonus amount depending on their rating and experience level:

All senior and mid-level associates who received a Successfully Achieves Frameworks rating will receive the full class amount starting at the lowest hour range.  In addition, associates who record ARC hours materially higher than 1,950 hours and associates who received a Distinctive rating will receive bonuses above their class amounts.  Only associates receiving a Below Frameworks rating will receive less than the full class amount. 

This year ARC will not give ratings to junior associates (classes of 2016 and 2017) except for associates who perform below the frameworks set forth for junior associates.  We have determined that focusing on feedback and development is more appropriate for associates beginning their legal careers.  Junior associates who met the 1,950 ARC hours threshold will receive the full class bonus amount unless they are performing below frameworks (in which case they will receive less than the full class amount).  Those who materially exceeded the hours threshold will receive higher bonuses.

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Read the full 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.

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.

headshotKathryn 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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