Biglaw

This Firm’s Tiered Bonus System Put Associates Down In The Dumps Or Way Over Market

This was either really good for associates... or really, really bad.

By Staci Zaretsky on January 28, 2019 3:59 pm

Biglaw bonus season started really early in 2018, and some firms are just now getting around to handing out extra cash to their associates. Another bonus announcement just reached us from Hughes Hubbard & Reed, and the firm has what a source describes as a “complicated, tiered bonus structure.” Oh goodie…

Before we get into that hot mess, the firm also announced its salary scale for its New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Miami offices. HHR is offering up Milbank scale’s first-year salary for its associates, and not Cravath’s improved 2018 scale for the rest of them, but Cravath’s 2016 scale instead:

  • Class 2018: $190,000
  • Class 2017: $200,000
  • Class 2016: $210,000
  • Class 2015: $235,000
  • Class 2014: $260,000
  • Class 2013: $280,000
  • Class 2012: $300,000
  • Class 2011+: $315,000

Now, about those bonuses. From what we understand, the firm has a minimum of 1700 client-billable hours to be eligible for a bonus in the first place. Thereafter, associate bonuses are broken down into four tiers (1900 hours, 2050 hours, 2250 hours, and 2450 hours), including total client-billable hours, Quality GO, pro bono, and business development hours. On top of that, the firm has even more qualifying caveats for bonus eligibility. We see why our source said this was “complicated”:

And now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for, HHR’s bonus tiers. Unfortunately, if you’ve done the bare minimum at this firm, it looks like you’ll be in OPM 404: Market Bonus Not Found territory, but if you’ve been working yourself to the bone, you’ll come out ahead of the market. Check it out:

So take, for example, a class of 2011 associate. The market bonus (aka Cravath bonus) for that seniority level is $100,000. At Hughes Hubbard, a class of 2011 associate will get a little over half of market for billing 1900 hours ($60,000), a shade over market for billing 2050 hours ($108,333), even more over market at 2250 hours ($118,333), and for 2450 hours — which is a ton of hours — that associate will get a decent amount above market ($138,333).

On the bright side, if you didn’t qualify for a tiered bonus based on hours, HHR allowed just 20 associates to apply for a $5,000 consolation prize bonus (i.e., a little pity bonus of sorts that was less than the prorated stub-year bonus being offered at almost all other Biglaw firms).

Congratulations to the associates at Hughes Hubbard who really put their noses to the grindstone, because they all came out on top. Those who believed in work/life balance or were in practice groups without a lot of work to go around found themselves woefully under-market during bonus season.

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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.