Bonus season is upon us and Biglaw is busy giving out lots of money to the associates who make the firms tick.
As you may recall, Fried Frank was already pretty quick on the bonus draw, announcing year-end bonuses that matched the Cravath scale way back on November 24th. But now that Davis Polk has moved the goal posts via new special bonuses, well another bonus memo is in order for the firm (ranked 60th on the Am Law 100 with $780,300,000 in gross revenue in 2020).
Yesterday, the firm announced special bonuses on that Davis Polk scale:
Protégé™ In CourtLink® Explains The Whole Case Faster
Designed to reduce manual docket work by prioritizing what litigators need most: on-demand full docket summarization that explains the whole case to date, followed by on-demand document summaries for filing triage, and AI-powered natural language searching for faster search and retrieval.
But as an extra kicker, the firm, which previously announced additional bonuses for “extraordinary efforts,” is bumping up the size of that pool, from $2,250 – $30,000 to $3,000 to $34,500.
As you know, the Firm has had a long-standing commitment to rewarding the extraordinary efforts of its attorneys by paying premiums of 15% or 30% above the market bonus amounts for attorneys who meet the criteria specified in our year-end bonus policies. As an update to the Firm’s 2021 Year-End Bonus Policy, the 15% and 30% premiums will be applied to the 2021 bonus scale announced on November 24, so that premium amounts will range from $3,000 to $34,500. For example, an associate in the class of 2014 is eligible to receive a maximum year-end bonus of $149,500, plus special bonuses totaling a maximum of $87,000.
Congratulations to everyone at the firm!
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.
The full memo is available on the next page.
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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. 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).