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It’s felt like a long time coming, what with Baker McKenzie making a bonus move already (though without accounting for the COVID appreciation bonuses that swept through Biglaw this fall), but actually, it’s right on schedule. The Monday before Thanksgiving is pretty much when you’d expect to see bonuses from perennial leader in the Biglaw compensation carousel, Cravath.
Of course, this year was pretty unique in the Biglaw bonus world. This fall, Cooley started the COVID bonus trend, but then Davis Polk blew the Cooley scale out of the water, and a number of Biglaw giants matched. But Cravath was not one of them, preferring instead to wait until year-end to thank associates with money for their hard work during the pandemic. And now, that patience has been rewarded.
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Here’s the bonus scale Cravath is offering, payable to associates on December 18th (full memo available on the next page):
Very nice bonuses indeed, but nothing truly… exciting. They’ve matched the DPW special bonus scale and matched the the year-end bonuses Baker McKenzie put out (which match last year’s numbers as well). But, for good or for bad, Cravath is still considered the gold standard of compensation, so we expect Biglaw to fall all over themselves to match this scale.
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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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).