Biglaw

Associates Get A Kool Special Thanksgiving Bonus

In addition to the usual year-end bonuses, that is.

Break out the stretchy pants and gratitude journals, because McKool Smith, the Texas-based complex trial firm that’s been handing out money to associates hand over fist for years, just dropped a little holiday surprise on its attorneys: special Thanksgiving bonuses, ranging from $2,500 to $10,000 depending on seniority.

Yes, in addition to year-end bonuses.

It’s not quite Milbank’s summer “please love us, please stay, please bill” bonus extravaganza, but McKool’s offering is nothing to sneeze at. Is it life-changing? No. Is it enough to buy a plane ticket home, a decent bottle of bourbon, and the emotional buffer required to survive a full Thanksgiving weekend with extended family? Absolutely. And this is the kind of gesture that keeps morale high — or at least above the level where attorneys start doom-scrolling job boards during lunch.

So congratulations, McKool attorneys. Enjoy the bonus, enjoy the validation, and enjoy the brief moment of hope before December’s year-end chaos begins.

Happy Thanksgiving — and happy bonus season.

Read the full announcement below.

Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of compensation updates, so when your firm announces or matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus/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 your help!


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 or Mastodon @[email protected].