Biglaw

Goodwin Refuses To Pay Special Fall Bonuses, Promises 'Competitive' Cash Come January 2021

Associates are disappointed, but not surprised.

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Now that Cravath has spoken on fall bonuses, you can expect the rest of peer Biglaw firms that weren’t early adopters of the Davis Polk scale to fall in line — and do absolutely nothing.

Not a single firm has opened its coffers since Cravath put the kibosh on associate appreciation bonuses, and Goodwin Procter — a firm ranked No. 22 in the latest Am Law 100, and that conducted a series of staff and attorney layoffs earlier this year — is stepping up to do the same.

This is “unexciting news,” as one associate quipped. Here’s the memo, sent by Robert Carroll, chair of the firm’s attorney review committee:

As you may be aware, some of our peer firms have announced COVID-19 related special bonuses, while others have remained silent or announced that they will not pay a special bonus. At Goodwin, we remain committed to providing compensation that is competitive with the market.

We will recognize your significant efforts in January, when we pay annual merit bonuses to our associates, counsel and professional track attorneys. These bonuses will take into consideration the great work that you have done for our clients and the special bonuses that have been announced by other firms. The bonuses will also take into account the incredible amount of time many of you dedicated to the firm and our clients in fiscal year 2020 as well as the challenges that many of you have experienced during the past year.  

As in prior years, bonus compensation will be awarded in offices outside of the United States in accordance with the respective rules and markets applicable in each jurisdiction.

On behalf of the entire firm, I would like to thank you for the dedication, hard work and agility that you have demonstrated in support of our clients and one another since the onset of the pandemic. Please let me know if you have any questions.

At least the firm seems to be committed to making sure its attorneys get full market compensation — and possibly more, but perhaps that’s too optimistic of a read on this brief memo. Associates will just have to wait to see how much bonus money they’ll receive for their “significant efforts” in January.

As always, we depend on 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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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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