Biglaw

Top 30 Am Law Firm That Once Refused Special Bonuses Now Offers Them As Part Of Year-End Bonus Scale

And there's an hours requirement for all bonuses -- but associates at this firm aren't complaining.

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Lawyers across much of the Northeast portion of the country find themselves buried in snow today, but we know just the thing that’ll inspire everyone to dig themselves out: bonus news.

Please note the UPDATE below.

Yesterday afternoon, Covington & Burling announced its 2020 year-end bonuses, and the firm has matched the Baker McKenzie bonus scale that was later adopted by Cravath. The good news for associates at the firm doesn’t stop there. After originally refusing to get on board with the fall bonuses that were offered by the most elite Biglaw firms, Covington has now decided to match the Davis Polk scale for those as well. Here’s the Covington bonus scale for 2020:

Sources at the firm tell us that while an hours requirement applies to both bonuses (i.e., 1,950 hours, including unlimited pro bono hours), associates reportedly aren’t as up in arms about it as they are at other firms. “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, people are pleased and understanding about the hours requirement,” says one tipster. “Can’t understand why that’s been an issue at other firms.”

UPDATE: It seems that not everyone at the firm is pleased about these hours requirements. Here’s a different perspective from a source:

Some associates think the decision unfairly ties the supplemental bonus, which the firm stated was to recognize contributions during COVID, to hours billed. Many people have not billed the target hours because they are dealing with children and virtual school or dealing with mental health issues, among other things. The tie to hours doesn’t acknowledge the contributions of those associates, who may have been close to the target even with these additional challenges.

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Bonuses are expected to be paid by the end of January 2021. Congrats to Covington!

(Flip to the next page to read the Covington & Burling bonus memo in full.)

Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of important bonus updates, so when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Matches”). 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 (which is the alert list we also use for salary announcements), 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. Thanks for all of your help!

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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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