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Day by day and one by one, Biglaw firm after Biglaw firm has been matching the prevailing market standard for year-end and special bonuses, and in some cases, adding supplemental bonuses on top for associates who have been very busy with their billing. Winston & Strawn — a firm that brought in $981,223,000 gross revenue in 2020, putting it at No. 45 in the most recent Am Law 100 ranking — is one of the firms that’s rewarding its highest billers with extra cash.
Here are the year-end and special bonus scales that associates are quite familiar with by now. At Winston & Strawn, associates must be in good standing and meet their minimum hours requirements to be eligible for year-end bonuses, while special bonuses will be given to all associates in good standing, regardless of their hours.
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For those associates who have “substantially exceed[ed]” the firm’s productivity goals, there are handsome rewards. Here’s what the supplemental bonus scale looks like for the firm’s high billers:
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Congrats to everyone at Winston & Strawn for all of their hard work this year!
(Flip to the next page to read the full memo from Winston & Strawn.)
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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.