Billing 2,400 hours over the course of a year is a lot. Indeed, at Quinn Emanuel, hitting that billing threshold qualifies you for some extra money on top of the market bonuses. So if a firm introduces a new bonus structure and you need to bill 2,400 hours to get the same money that Cravath gives out without any billable requirement at all, well, Above the Law is going to have something to say about it.
Tipsters inform us that Venable recently announced an updated bonus structure. The scale is available in full below, and, as you can see, it isn’t until the 2,400 mark that associates at the firm finally match the Cravath scale.
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Venable has a history of dinging the bonuses of associates who don’t bill at the top of the market. At least this new scale provides some measure of transparency for associates. But that’s cold comfort as you’re billing like crazy to only make what your peers at other firms get as a matter of course.
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).