Biglaw

Top 20 Biglaw Firm Delights With Special Bonuses With No Hours Requirements

Associates are very happy indeed!

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There’ll be no jelly of the month club debacle at Mayer Brown this year! The Biglaw firm that took 17th place in the latest Am Law 100 rankings, with $1,484,000,000 in gross revenue is delighting its associates with full market rate special bonuses — with no hours requirement.

So-called COVID appreciation bonuses became all the rage among Biglaw firms starting in the fall, as a thank you for associates‘ hard work during the pandemic. The market special bonuses range from $7,500 to $40,000, depending on class year.

The special bonuses at Mayer Brown are in addition to their typical year-end bonuses. Those bonuses, which can differ based on the office, will remain at the same levels as last year. You can read the firm’s full announcement on the next page.

It’s been a bumpy year for Mayer Brown. Back in May, the firm announced a series of graduated salary cuts. Even though at the time it was anticipated the cuts would last through the end of the year, in September they changed course and restored salaries to their pre-pandemic levels.

And tipsters report that the firm made retroactive salary payments restoring the cut salaries:

The firm already paid make-whole payments for the cuts to all associates back in October. After originally indicating that such payments might be made only to “high performers,” the firm actually paid them to everyone. Thus, with the payment of normal annual bonuses and market-matching special bonuses (with no hours requirement), associates are now in a position where they are making just as much as the average person at any top firm.

All of which means there are some pretty happy associates at the firm. Here’s a sampling of the comments:

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This is a big deal because it shows that the firm was honest and made good on its word. The pandemic pay cuts were truly a prophylactic measure driven by the firm’s trademark conservatism during an uncertain time. I was skeptical of that and was considering jumping ship if bonuses didn’t pan out. But when it became clear to firm leadership that things were ok, notwithstanding the pandemic, they ensured that we would be compensated commensurate with the market. This is and will remain a market-matching firm. Morale is high. The firm is in fact having a great year and was just treading lightly back in the spring.
Importantly, even during its time of prophylactic austerity, the firm also did not conduct any layoffs, including staff.

Firm saw Sidley got burned on the hours requirements for special bonuses and stepped up. Associates are happy. Insanely busy year. Many associates I know will be getting end of year bonuses well in excess of market. I don’t know anyone that won’t hit their hours for a full bonus or more.

Congrats to those at the firm!

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.

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.

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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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