Am Law 50 Firm Offers Market-Busting Bonuses On Top Of Bonuses On Top Of Bonuses
Amazing!
Biglaw’s 2020 bonus season is getting repetitive. Firm after firm is announcing the same bonuses, with little differentiation save for billable hours requirements for associates to take home their cash.
Today, we’ve got a bit of a game changer.
What could possibly be better than bonuses? Bonuses on top of bonuses, of course. And what could be better than bonuses on top of bonuses? Bonuses to the third power (i.e., bonuses on top of bonuses on top of bonuses), and that’s exactly what Orrick — a firm that brought in $1,158,537,000 in 2019 gross revenue, placing in at No. 31 in the most recent Am Law 100 rankings — is offering to its associates this year.
First and foremost, the firm will be matching the year-end bonus scale offered by Cravath and the special bonus scale offered by Davis Polk. What’s needed for associates to get a full market bonus? At the beginning of the year, the firm lowered its billable hours threshold to 1,950, including 100 hours of time spent on areas like diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), innovation, and business development (BD), plus unlimited pro bono hours.
In addition to those bonuses, Orrick is once again offering premium overmarket bonuses to its hardest-working associates on top of its regular bonuses. Last, but certainly not least, the firm is offering another special bonus to associates to reward the “grit and dedication” that was needed from them to succeed during the pandemic. Those with hours in the range of 1,850 to 1,949 will be eligible for a special merit bonus award ranging from $5,000 to $15,000, depending on class year.
Check out the Orrick bonus scale:
First-year associates at Orrick could receive up to $26,250 in bonus cash ($3,750 more than market) and senior associates at the firm could receive up to $165,000 in bonus cash ($25,000 more than market). That’s pretty amazing!
As if the firm’s generosity to associates wasn’t enough, Orrick is also offering special bonuses to its career associates, its analytics team, and its paralegals.
In addition to all of this bonus news, the firm’s family caregiver relief program — a benefit that will allow associates and counsel who were thrust into caregiving positions (for children, elderly parents, or both) during the pandemic to work an 80 percent schedule at full compensation for up to three months — is now underway.
Congratulations to everyone at Orrick! This is a fantastic way to boost morale for all at the firm as 2020 finally comes to an end.
(Flip to the next page to read the Orrick bonus memo in full.)
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Staci 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.
