Biglaw

Cravath Really Screwed Everyone In Biglaw Out Of Fall Bonuses, Didn't They?

Thanks, Cravath.

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To say the Biglaw fall bonus train has slowed down is an understatement.

It all started so promisingly. Cooley made the first move in the COVID appreciation bonus game, offering associates between $2,500 and $7,500 as a special thank you from the firm for their hard work during the pandemic. But then Davis Polk got involved with a new standard, and it just blew away the Cooley scale. Their bonuses started at $7,500 and went all the way up to $40,000. And firms quickly started piling on this new bonus scale. Weil offered a seemingly unpopular hours-based bonus, but, thus far, no one has jumped on board with that.

But then there was the notable outlier: Kirkland — the world’s richest law firm — begged off fall special bonuses, and seemed to be asking the market not to follow the trend. And then Cravath followed with their own no-bonus announcement. Since that fateful announcement by the traditional compensation leader, no other firms have taken the plunge and handed out special fall bonuses. But plenty have declined to give out appreciation bonuses.

So color me not-at-all shocked that Fried Frank has made a statement that there will be no fall bonuses for associates (available in full on the next page). As one tipster said:

I’ll say that this isn’t surprising at all. The firm has made clear that they were only going to move ahead with special bonuses if the market leaders did so. When a few of the big firms decided they wouldn’t, it was clear FF would not.

Thanks for nothing, Cravath. At least Fried Frank notes they will be taking the fall bonuses into account when it’s time for year-end bonuses.

So, what do you think? Is this yet another sign to other firms not to match? We think it could be. Feel free to sound off by email, by text message (646-820-8477), or by tweet (@ATLblog). A fun or insightful response — we’ll keep you anonymous — could find its way into an update to this story.

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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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