Biglaw

Biglaw Firm Gives Out Special Bonuses, But The Amount Leaves Associates Wanting More

The discontent is best expressed in meme form.

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(Image via Getty)

Yes, February is waning and the temperatures in the Northeast are inching up bringing the first, fleeting glance of spring, but that doesn’t mean Biglaw is done with the 2020 bonus cycle. Lots of firms ponied up year-end and special bonuses already, but not every firm got on board.

Back in January, Cadwalader announced that employees would be reimbursed for the salary cuts they sustained in 2020, as part of the firm’s response to COVID-19. (in full for administrative staff without any billable requirements, and in full for legal staff who had billed 1400 or more client hours in 2020.) They also announced year-end bonuses matching the Cravath year-end scale for associates and special counsel — if they billed 1900 client hours. But there was no mention of the special bonuses that top Biglaw firms were giving out to associates.

Now, at last, comes word about Cadwalader special bonuses. According to insiders at the firm, Cadwalader told associates they’d do special bonuses, but they’d be black boxed, meaning there’d be no easy to understand schedule of how much associates would be given based on class year or hours billed or any objective measure. Instead special bonus amounts would be communicated individually.

Hmmmm, but what would that actually mean for associates’ bank accounts? Then came this detail from a tipster:

Cadwalader managing partner told associates that the new special bonus scale tops out at about half of the NY market rate. He tried to justify the cut by saying 2020 revenue was down 1.5% firm-wide, so CWT did not have a windfall year like other firms, despite a very busy and profitable year for some practice groups.

So it’ll be difficult wind up with a full market bonuses. (Update: Other tipsters have reached out to note to Above the Law that in combination with Cadwalader’s extra bonus for super high billable hours, it *is* possible to hit a market bonus, and maybe even get a tiny bit over that mark — you’ll just have to bill your butt off. “They way they did it was that in combination with CWT’s existing super bonus policy (where they give you 120% of the regular bonus amount if you hit 2200), the special bonuses they announced actually put people a little above market IF they billed over 2200 hours.” And considering many Biglaw firms are giving those special bonuses with no or a lowered hours requirement, well, it has to sting to have to hit the 2200 threshold to finally hit market money.) From what we hear, associate reaction can best be summed up by this meme that’s making the rounds:

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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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