The week after Thanksgiving is known for being kind of a drag, but nothing lightens the mood more than Biglaw firms announcing that they’re handing out bonuses on top of bonuses on top of bonuses. Which firm is the latest to announce its year-end bonus scale?
That would be Sidley Austin, a firm that took in $3,439,646,000 gross revenue in 2024, putting it at No. 6 on the latest Am Law 100. The elite firm recently let associates know that it would be matching the Cravath scale, complete with Milbank’s summer bonuses, for those who have met their 2000-hour billable requirement. Those who weren’t able to meet the minimum “may be recognized with partial bonuses.” Here’s what the bonus scale looks like at Sidley:
Associates who have gone above and beyond — i.e., those who have “higher productivity and/or exceptional performance” — will be rewarded with even more money. Here are the details:
As in prior years, we also recognize associates who have higher productivity and/or exceptional performance with additional bonuses that exceed the base bonus amounts, resulting in those associates receiving more than the base bonus for their class year, and in some cases more than 50% above base bonus.
Bonuses will hit bank accounts prior to December 31, 2025. Congratulations to everyone at Sidley!
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!
Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of 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 Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.