Kirkland Bonuses? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm betting we hear on Friday.

[Anonymous User]

Just make sure you get a full market bonus guarantee. The bonus year is August to July and some people who started in January and didn't have a full market bonus guarantee got prorated.

Didn't know that about the bonus year. I did get the full bonus guarantee but I didn't really view it as a concession from them. I feel like that's the first point these firms are willing to give up when negotiating offers.

lol we don't do hours requirements, assuming you aren't bad at your job and get below-class rating, everyone gets at least market. no idea what happens if you're below-class though.

Got it. Some firms have more "discretionary" special bonuses targeted towards certain practice groups so just wanted to check that it was firm-wide at Kirkland (pending not sucking at job)

In some ways--emphasis some--Kirkland has a very white shoe attitude i.e., there truly is no hours requirement and there are plenty of stories here and elsewhere about associates underbilling for a given year and still getting a full bonus with a multiplier. I think the partnership views itself as so wealthy that it would be almost "beneath" them to do something like tack on an hours expectation. Of course the other side of the coin is for that one year where you did 1,850 and got a 1.25x market the next you did 2,400 in classic Kirkland style, so it's not a free lunch per se. But generally speaking Kirkland has never let people down on comp. and they don't penny pinch as far as hours or minimums as long as you're not below class (read: being pushed out the door anyway).

Which I love, honestly. Having been at places that pinch pennies and fret over small bullshit, it’s nice to be at a place that doesn’t sweat its expenses (i.e. my salary, but also small office items that don’t require hoops to get, events that don’t skimp, etc) because it’s instead focused on driving revenue. To me, the marginal increase in expectations for me to generate revenue over another firm is worth the lack of worry over costs, especially since much of the revenue boost comes from billing rates rather than my hours worked (and expectations of hours worked are informal rather than hard minimum requirements).

[Anonymous User]

The last two years have had bonus memos and the meeting (or “town hall”) on the same day. I believe they were both Dec. 18, one was a Wednesday and the other a Friday. So Dec. 15 is a bit earlier but there is at least a decent chance we get memos tomorrow if the firm continues to send them on the same day of the meeting.

[Anonymous User]

Just make sure you get a full market bonus guarantee. The bonus year is August to July and some people who started in January and didn't have a full market bonus guarantee got prorated.

Didn't know that about the bonus year. I did get the full bonus guarantee but I didn't really view it as a concession from them. I feel like that's the first point these firms are willing to give up when negotiating offers.

lol we don't do hours requirements, assuming you aren't bad at your job and get below-class rating, everyone gets at least market. no idea what happens if you're below-class though.

Got it. Some firms have more "discretionary" special bonuses targeted towards certain practice groups so just wanted to check that it was firm-wide at Kirkland (pending not sucking at job)

In some ways--emphasis some--Kirkland has a very white shoe attitude i.e., there truly is no hours requirement and there are plenty of stories here and elsewhere about associates underbilling for a given year and still getting a full bonus with a multiplier. I think the partnership views itself as so wealthy that it would be almost "beneath" them to do something like tack on an hours expectation. Of course the other side of the coin is for that one year where you did 1,850 and got a 1.25x market the next you did 2,400 in classic Kirkland style, so it's not a free lunch per se. But generally speaking Kirkland has never let people down on comp. and they don't penny pinch as far as hours or minimums as long as you're not below class (read: being pushed out the door anyway).

Which I love, honestly. Having been at places that pinch pennies and fret over small bullshit, it’s nice to be at a place that doesn’t sweat its expenses (i.e. my salary, but also small office items that don’t require hoops to get, events that don’t skimp, etc) because it’s instead focused on driving revenue. To me, the marginal increase in expectations for me to generate revenue over another firm is worth the lack of worry over costs, especially since much of the revenue boost comes from billing rates rather than my hours worked (and expectations of hours worked are informal rather than hard minimum requirements).

This is my attitude too but we should recognize that it's a very privileged one that's reserved for a very small portion of firms--V25 or even just V10. A lot of the firms that find themselves obsessing over marginal items are doing it because they don't perceive there to be a way to do what KE does, for better or worse, i.e., they can't just "drive revenue."

[Anonymous User]

The last two years have had bonus memos and the meeting (or “town hall”) on the same day. I believe they were both Dec. 18, one was a Wednesday and the other a Friday. So Dec. 15 is a bit earlier but there is at least a decent chance we get memos tomorrow if the firm continues to send them on the same day of the meeting.

If the town hall is Wednesday I'm thinking the memos are going out Wednesday too.

[Anonymous User]

The last two years have had bonus memos and the meeting (or “town hall”) on the same day. I believe they were both Dec. 18, one was a Wednesday and the other a Friday. So Dec. 15 is a bit earlier but there is at least a decent chance we get memos tomorrow if the firm continues to send them on the same day of the meeting.

If the town hall is Wednesday I'm thinking the memos are going out Wednesday too.

Hope you're right! I always hate the extended wait to get confirmation of the numbers, even though it's always reliably just a question of how much we're beating market.

[Anonymous User]

Do NSPs receive bonus memos on the same timeline as associates?

[Anonymous User]

Do NSPs receive bonus memos on the same timeline as associates?

It's roughly around the same time. Not necessarily the same day but it's been pretty close in my (limited) experience. The NSP stuff is such a black box.

[Anonymous User]

Do NSPs receive bonus memos on the same timeline as associates?

It's roughly around the same time. Not necessarily the same day but it's been pretty close in my (limited) experience. The NSP stuff is such a black box.

NSP careers are a black box lol. Welcome to life as an NSP.

[Anonymous User]

Do NSPs receive bonus memos on the same timeline as associates?

It's roughly around the same time. Not necessarily the same day but it's been pretty close in my (limited) experience. The NSP stuff is such a black box.

NSP careers are a black box lol. Welcome to life as an NSP.

when are the actual reviews?

[Anonymous User]

Do NSPs receive bonus memos on the same timeline as associates?

It's roughly around the same time. Not necessarily the same day but it's been pretty close in my (limited) experience. The NSP stuff is such a black box.

NSP careers are a black box lol. Welcome to life as an NSP.

when are the actual reviews?

The typical NSP "review" is a phone call from a share partner in your group +/- 3 days from when you get the bonus memo where they say a version of "you did a fine job; keep it up. Reviews looked good. Thanks." Or I guess conversely "you've done a poor job; let's start looking for new opportunities." It becomes much less formal than when you're an associate.

[Anonymous User]

Please more speculation about whether bonus memos are coming out tomorrow or not.

[Anonymous User]

It would be silly to have the "ra ra" presentation on Wednesday and have to wait until Friday night for the actual bonus memos. It was bad enough having to wait eight hours last year between Zoom call and bonus memo email. Productivity was so low.

[Anonymous User]

Okay guys, ostensibly today's the day. Anyone want to throw out some predictions? I'm going to be bold and estimate that your average, with class (3 rating) 2,000 hour associate is going to be at a 1.4x multiplier off the Cravath base, which would be a gain on last year and more like Kirkland from 5-10 years ago. High billers (2,500 hours+) will see 2x+. It's been a great year for the firm and it feels like leadership knows people are: (a) attritioning; (b) burning out and they're going to respond to that in a big way.

[Anonymous User]

Reminder to unmute yourselves to do a total meltdown if it's anything but amazing bonus news.

[Anonymous User]

Okay guys, ostensibly today's the day. Anyone want to throw out some predictions? I'm going to be bold and estimate that your average, with class (3 rating) 2,000 hour associate is going to be at a 1.4x multiplier off the Cravath base, which would be a gain on last year and more like Kirkland from 5-10 years ago. High billers (2,500 hours+) will see 2x+. It's been a great year for the firm and it feels like leadership knows people are: (a) attritioning; (b) burning out and they're going to respond to that in a big way.

I'll guess the average/median that they announce in a few minutes is higher than before - maybe 1.4x - but that's not what a 2000/3 associate gets. It'll be higher because there are so many 2400+ associates who will get very nice multipliers. 2000/3 will be around 1.2x like usual.

[Anonymous User]

Okay guys, ostensibly today's the day. Anyone want to throw out some predictions? I'm going to be bold and estimate that your average, with class (3 rating) 2,000 hour associate is going to be at a 1.4x multiplier off the Cravath base, which would be a gain on last year and more like Kirkland from 5-10 years ago. High billers (2,500 hours+) will see 2x+. It's been a great year for the firm and it feels like leadership knows people are: (a) attritioning; (b) burning out and they're going to respond to that in a big way.

Love this optimism that completely disregards the wild greed of the partnership.

[Anonymous User]

"Kirkland is a growth model kind of institution" ... let's see the growth model in associate bonuses.

[Anonymous User]

Okay guys, ostensibly today's the day. Anyone want to throw out some predictions? I'm going to be bold and estimate that your average, with class (3 rating) 2,000 hour associate is going to be at a 1.4x multiplier off the Cravath base, which would be a gain on last year and more like Kirkland from 5-10 years ago. High billers (2,500 hours+) will see 2x+. It's been a great year for the firm and it feels like leadership knows people are: (a) attritioning; (b) burning out and they're going to respond to that in a big way.

I'll guess the average/median that they announce in a few minutes is higher than before - maybe 1.4x - but that's not what a 2000/3 associate gets. It'll be higher because there are so many 2400+ associates who will get very nice multipliers. 2000/3 will be around 1.2x like usual.

If that’s the case that would mean there’s been no change in the multiplier despite becoming literally the richest firm in the world on another year of record breaking profits which would be … crap

[Anonymous User]

lol hard @ "look, I recognize Kirkland is not for everyone, but if you are someone who is not a fukking lame brained mouthbreather, then kirkland is a great place!"

[Anonymous User]

5 pm eastern Friday for bonus memos UGH

[Anonymous User]

That was a long way of saying "there's no minimum multiplier this year, but you might get shares if you stick around".

[Anonymous User]

Literally one minute for bonus talk after a full 20 of how great the firm is. Memos coming at 5:00 PM ET on Friday. The “floor” is the DPW scale (I assume that means everyone with a 3 rating or better) and it goes up from there. No hints at all of median/average multipliers.

[Anonymous User]

Holy shit that was bad. My takeaway is that Kirkland isn’t giving a multiplier to your average 2000/3 associate anymore which is sort of shocking and against all historical practice. Am I misreading things / being overly dramatic here or did others get that same impression.

[Anonymous User]

Holy shit that was bad. My takeaway is that Kirkland isn’t giving a multiplier to your average 2000/3 associate anymore which is sort of shocking and against all historical practice. Am I misreading things / being overly dramatic here or did others get that same impression.

My suspicion is that the run of the mill 2000/3 in a practice group that isn’t on fire will get the same thing that they usually get, while big billers and maybe even people in certain practice groups get very high multipliers that are intended to serve retention purposes.

And I imagine that could be a reason for sharing zero details about bonuses to the whole firm, because there are likely going to be wider disparities than usual across associates (and maybe across practice groups) and they don’t want the people on the lower end to know where they are.

But I still think the 2000/3 people of the world will get their approximately 1.2x.