Biglaw

Biglaw Firm Announces New Salary And Bonuses At The Same Time -- All To Be Paid In 2022

A long wait lies ahead of associates for these raises.

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Even though July 1 has come and gone, Biglaw firms are still announcing compensation moves. This weekend, yet another firm made fireworks when it notified associates that salaries would be exploding, as well as bonuses. Exciting news all around, but there’s a little caveat on the salary news: nothing will be happening until 2022.

Vedder Price, a firm that grossed $255,000,000 in 2020, landing it at No. 127 on the most recent Am Law 200, announced a new bonus program for associates on Saturday. Those with at least 1,800 annualized chargeable hours as of December 31, 2021 (including up to 100 pro bono hours) as well as a performance rating of 3 or better will receive base performance bonuses on the following scale:

  • Class of 2020: $5,000
  • Class of 2019: $7,500
  • Class of 2018: $10,000
  • Class of 2017: $15,000
  • Class of 2016: $20,000
  • Class of 2015: $25,000
  • Class of 2014+: $30,000

High billers at the firm will receive an “additional hours” bonus that increases on a pro-rated basis for increments of chargeable hours over the 2,000 mark. For the classes of 2020 through 2018, those bonuses will be $15K, $25K, and $60K, capped as an aggregate of their base bonus plus additional hours bonus. For the class of 2017 and beyond, there will be no cap.

Those with 1700-1799 annualized chargeable hours and a performance rating 3 or better will receive 50% of the bonus for their class years. It looks like those who come in below 1700 hours won’t receive this bonus at all. A “collections” bonus will also be available. These bonuses are payable on April 15, 2022.

As far as the firm’s new base salary scale is concerned, it starts out at $205K, so it seems like everything will be on par with the market, but it turns out that compensation gets a little constricted for midlevel to senior associates, but on a range. Associates must have at least 1,850 annualized chargeable hours to be eligible for a raise. Here’s what Vedder Price associates will be working with, effective January 1, 2022:

  • Class of 2020: $205,000
  • Class of 2019: $210,000-$215,000
  • Class of 2018: $220,000-$240,000
  • Class of 2017: $235,000-$260,000
  • Class of 2016: $260,000-$280,000
  • Class of 2015: $280,000-$300,000
  • Class of 2014: $295,000-$315,000
  • Class of 2013+: $305,000-$325,000

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The range here is “based on relevant market factors such as practice area and geographic area,” and when compared to the prevailing Davis Polk scale, salaries start to get crunched after the class of 2018. The more senior the associate, the more the scale deviates away from a dollar-to-dollar match. (Take, for example, Vedder’s highest eighth-year salary of $325,000. That’s $40,000 less than what’s being offered on the DPW scale.)

Associates at the firm may wish their new salaries and bonuses were coming sooner, but any raise and any bonus is nice, despite what may seem like an exceptionally long waiting period to get it.

(Flip to the next page to see the memo from Vedder Price.)

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Staci ZaretskyStaci 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.

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