Biglaw

Am Law 50 Firm Ponies Up Market Rate Special Bonuses -- For *Some* Associates

Some folks are excited, at least.

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The special bonus trend is still ripping through Biglaw. The latest firm that made an announcement joining the ranks of firms handing out big cash to associates is Perkins Coie.

The Biglaw firm — ranked 45th in the Am Law 100 with $934,810,000 in 2019 gross revenue — recently made headlines for deciding to scale back their physical office footprint, noting that hybrid work solutions are here to stay. Another thing here to stay are Biglaw special bonuses, and Perkins Coie has also saddled up to that trend.

Last week, Perkins Coie announced special bonuses. They’ve matched the prevailing market rate, ranging from $12,000 for first-year associates to $64,000 for ninth-year+ associates, divided up into two payments made in April and November of this year. Associates have to be in good standing and hit a 1950 hours requirement.

Well — for some associates.

As tipsters at the firm have noted, only major market offices are getting those big bonuses. Others are getting some bonus money, just not as large:

Bonuses are at market for Austin, Bellevue, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, LA, NY, Palo Alto, San Diego, San Fran, Seattle, and WDC. Bonuses for Anchorage, Boise, Madison, Phoenix, and Portland are only half of market. Associates getting reduced bonuses are, naturally, pretty pissed—but hardly surprised since we have become so used to being shit on related to salary and bonus decisions. So much for the “One Firm” model that they keep emphasizing to us, I guess.

Hm, sounds like morale — at least at those other markets — isn’t great.

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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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