While offering some of these bonuses is great and it demonstrates an appreciation from the firm that you’re with, whether or not in the long term it’s going to be helpful for retention I think is yet to be seen. They need [associates] more than ever and so being proactive in keeping them happy, when they’re billing as much as they’re billing … it is one of the tools that they have right now to retain the talent that they have while also trying to recruit new talent.
— Summer Eberhard, West Coast-based managing director in the associate practice group at Major Lindsey & Africa, commenting on the round of special bonus announcements that have been making their way through Biglaw. Click here to see which firms have offered special bonuses to associates thus far.
AI Is Reshaping Legal Practice—But Tools Aren’t The Real Differentiator.
Explore the mindset, cultural shifts, and training strategies that define the AI‑savvy lawyer, revealing why human judgment, standardized competence, and integrated learning—not technology alone—will shape the future of the profession.
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.