Biglaw

Biglaw Firm Offers Over-The-Top Bonuses For 'Extraordinary' Associates

How much extra money are we talking about here?

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It’s Friday afternoon, and you know what that means during bonus season: Biglaw associates across the country have been counting down the hours and repeatedly refreshing their email accounts to see if they’ve received any welcome news about whether their firm will match the market or come in over the top.

Today, lucky associates at one firm discovered that they’d wind up with some extra cash on top of their regular bonuses if they worked really, really hard this year. Which firm could be offering up the bountiful bonuses, and how much extra money are we talking?

It’s Akin Gump, and the firm has matched Milbank for 2019 year-end bonuses. In case you’ve forgotten, this is what the scale looks like:

Class of 2019 – $15,000 (pro-rated)
Class of 2018 – $15,000
Class of 2017 – $25,000
Class of 2016 – $50,000
Class of 2015 – $65,000
Class of 2014 – $80,000
Class of 2013 – $90,000
Class of 2012 – $100,000
Class of 2011 – $100,000

Associates at the firm need to have worked 1950 or more hours (including pro bono hours, general counsel hours, business development hours, and up to 100 hours of time spent on recruiting, diversity & inclusion, and/or innovation activities) to be considered eligible for a full bonus this year.

Now, about the additional money highly productive associates at the firm can expect, let’s turn to an excerpt from this year’s bonus memo:

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This year, as in the past, the firm will reward truly outstanding performers with bonuses that exceed the market bonus for their respective class (as set forth above). Those associates and counsel whose performance and productivity is deemed extraordinary will receive additional bonus amounts ranging from $5,000 – $25,000 above the market level for their class.

Congratulations to everyone at Akin — this seems like a fantastic cash haul. Bonuses at the firm will hit associate bank accounts in early 2020.

(Flip to the next page to see the full memo from Akin Gump.)

Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of important bonus updates, so when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Matches”). 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 (which is the alert list we also use for salary announcements), 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. Thanks for all of your help!

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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.

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