Considering the fact that many firms conducted salary cuts due to COVID-19, Biglaw’s 2020 bonus season numbers were actually quite generous. This year’s bonus haul consisted of traditional year-end bonuses coupled with special bonuses that were given to associates in appreciation of their hard work during the pandemic. Firms that didn’t hand out both bonuses were considered below market, which is not a great place to be — but that’s where this Am Law 200 firm reportedly finds itself.
Stroock & Stroock & Lavan — a firm that brought in $258,000,000 in gross revenue in 2019, placing it at #122 on the most recent Am Law ranking — slashed salaries in June, but gave attorneys the opportunity to recoup lost pay through their annualized billable hours. We recently learned that Stroock handed out bonuses just before the holidays, but associates aren’t exactly thrilled.
The firm doesn’t send out bonus memos, but instead calls associates individually. Here’s what our sources say about 2020’s bonuses at Stroock:
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Associates were given the standard end-of-year bonus scale as in past years but were NOT given a special “COVID” bonus – neither in the fall nor at the end of the year. This is extremely troubling as Stroock has always been a “market rate” firm, yet now gives sub-market-rate bonuses while less prestigious firms with lower payscales and much lower profits per partner are awarding special bonuses.
Morale at the firm is at an all-time low. All this while the firm touts how busy our Financial Restructuring practice has been right on the front page of the website. It seems from all firm communications that 2020 was a great year financially for the firm despite COVID, so to make less than my peers at firms that have struggled is anything but fair.
UPDATE (1/6): Here are some additional quotes from Stroock associates, who are less-than pleased with the situation at the firm.
Stroock gave Cravath bonuses in the New York and DC offices (smaller bonuses in Miami and Los Angeles) to associates who billed over 2000 hours. We heard the firm would pay “special COVID bonuses” to associates who made “extraordinary contributions” to the firm (i.e., 2300 hours or more). It seems like the firm is trying to pull a fast one on terminology here. They always offer special bonuses for high billers, but they’re not equivalent to the special COVID bonuses that were offered by other firms in 2020. Morale here has been very low. I think an associate exodus may be coming.
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I just want to emphasize that, in addition to the lack of special bonuses, the firm is not paying backpay for pay cuts unless you make you hours (with no backpay for staff!!), which clearly breaks with almost all other firms. At the beginning of COVID, Stroock talked about how we are all in this together and it would do everything it could to preserve jobs and salaries because we are family. Those words have not been backed up with action. Despite having what appears to be a good year (bolstered by litigation and financial restructuring), taking $8M in PPP funding, and having profits per partner that far exceed our size and ranking, the firm is refusing to provide even close to market compensation. The partners should be ashamed of their greed during this pandemic.
Ooof, sorry about that, Stroockies.
Are you an associate at the firm? What do you think about bonuses this year? Feel free to sound off by email, by text message (646-820-8477), or by tweet (@ATLblog). A fun or insightful response — we’ll keep you anonymous, as always — could find its way into an update to this story.
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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.