Choo-Choo! Top 50 Firm Boards The Biglaw Bonus Train
All aboard, associates and counsel!
Yet another Biglaw firm’s bonus train just pulled into the station, and associates are pleased as can be.
Akin Gump — a firm that took home $1,208,738,000 gross revenue in 2020, putting it in 33rd place in the most recent Am Law 100 — announced that it would be matching the Cravath/DPW year-end and special bonus scale for associates and counsel earlier this morning.
Here’s what that bonus scale looks like at the firm:
Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance
| Class Year | Year-End Bonus | One-Time Special Bonus |
| Class of 2021 | $15,000 (pro-rated) | n/a |
| Class of 2020 | $20,000 | $4,000 |
| Class of 2019 | $30,000 | $6,000 |
| Class of 2018 | $57,500 | $11,500 |
| Class of 2017 | $75,000 | $15,000 |
| Class of 2016 | $90,000 | $18,000 |
| Class of 2015 | $105,000 | $21,000 |
| Class of 2014 + | $115,000 | $23,000 |
Before attorneys can go chug-chug-chugging along into bonus paradise, they must have billed 1950 or more hours this year (with pro bono hours, general counsel hours, business development hours, and up to 100 hours of time spent on recruiting, diversity & inclusion, and/or innovation activities counting toward meeting that goal). Associates and counsel whose performance and productivity were “extraordinary” will be awarded additional bonus money.
Congratulations to everyone at Akin on the generous bonuses!
(Flip to the next page to read the full memo from Akin Gump.)
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Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of important bonus updates, so when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Matches”). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.
And if you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Bonus Alerts (which is the alert list we also use for salary announcements), please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the bonus alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each bonus announcement that we publish. Thanks for all of your help!
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.
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Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance
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