Biglaw

Willkie Farr Gets Into The Biglaw Bonus Season Groove With Announcement

Don't be blasé about Biglaw bonuses -- there's a lot of money at stake!

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It’s easy to become jaded during Biglaw bonus season. Yes, there are so many firms giving out huge bonuses, but Biglaw likes to play follow the leader. So, it tends to be the same numbers (which, were also the same scale as last year — and well, every year since 2014) over and over. But it represents a lot of hard work — and billable hours. And the industry-wide transparency created by sharing each bonus announcement (and any stipulations that accompany it) helps law students looking to start their careers in Biglaw and those that find themselves on the lateral market.

Now Willkie has announced year-end bonuses, and yes, because of course, they are matching the prevailing market rate. The bonus scale is as follows (you can read the full memo on the next page):

Class of 2019: $15,000
Class of 2018: $25,000
Class of 2017: $50,000
Class of 2016: $65,000
Class of 2015: $80,000
Class of 2014: $90,000
Class of 2013+: $100,000

Year-end bonuses will be paid on December 18th.

Back in October, Willkie was among the Biglaw firms blowing off Cravath’s decision to wait on special fall bonuses (though Cravath eventually made their associates whole) and they went ahead and handed out COVID appreciation bonuses. Those special bonuses range from $7,500 to $40,000, depending on class year, and are in addition to the year-end bonus numbers. So yeah, Biglaw associates have a lot to be thankful for!

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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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.

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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