Fall bonuses Forum

[Anonymous User]

Curious whether there's any interplay between fall bonuses and first year start dates. Are Debevoise/S&C/DPW/Milbank first years starting on time?

I’d imagine this has more to do with summer associate hiring/recruiting timing. With the recruiting largely pushed to early 2021, a special market bonus and then a strong EOY bonus will bode well for those firms in 2021.

I only ask bc Proskauer just delayed first year start dates to end of January. Unclear whether it's a move to make some additional room for fall bonuses, to dig in to the narrative that PR can't afford special bonuses, or just innocuous.

Can anyone at Proskauer speak to how the firm is doing? Wasn't happy to hear this as other firms bring up their start dates from January to the fall.

Will likely know more from a fall bonuses perspective following an "associate check-in" with the chairman tomorrow afternoon, which was (somewhat ominously) scheduled this past Friday. From an overall firm health perspective, it's hard to say. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we haven't had visibility into which groups slowed down and which, if any, picked up, and the impact on revenues overall during the past 6+ months. Big private credit and general finance practice on the lender side here, so the finance group was busy doing credit agreement amendments, borrower workouts, debt to equity swaps, hovering around bankruptcies (credit bids), etc. Labor and employment generally got busier. M&A generally slowed down. I don't know that restructuring picked up more than it otherwise had been (biggest case here is the Puerto Rico bankruptcy, which moved along at the same pace as always). Sports, litigation, cap markets: I'm just not sure overall. I believe partners reduced draws, and I wouldn't be surprised if the overall result was that we took a hit for ~6 months, which was somewhat mitigated by some groups picking up slack, but not enough to make 2020 better than 2019. May know more tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks for providing some insight. If you learn anything relevant tomorrow, I'd love it if you could report back. Thought the lack of salary cuts, layoffs, and otherwise reading about the firm was a good thing, but maybe they were just trying to maintain an image that things were good

[Anonymous User]

Weil bonuses are out. Based on hours rather than class year.

Below 1800: $10K
1800-1999: $20K
2000-2299: $30K
2300-2599: $40K
More than 2600: $50K

[Anonymous User]

Clarifying hours are annualized based on 1/1-8/31

Weil bonuses are out. Based on hours rather than class year.

Below 1800: $10K
1800-1999: $20K
2000-2299: $30K
2300-2599: $40K
More than 2600: $50K

[Anonymous User]

Weil bonuses are out. Based on hours rather than class year.

Below 1800: $10K
1800-1999: $20K
2000-2299: $30K
2300-2599: $40K
More than 2600: $50K

Very interesting approach. I’d imagine that busy mid levels at other firms are probably jealous of the pay scale.

[JusticeSquee]

Clarifying hours are annualized based on 1/1-8/31

Weil bonuses are out. Based on hours rather than class year.

Below 1800: $10K
1800-1999: $20K
2000-2299: $30K
2300-2599: $40K
More than 2600: $50K

Holy shit this changes the game. A first-year that's billing 2600+ gets to take home 50K!? That's wild. Love it. K&E BTFO.

[POPTOP]

Weil bonuses are out. Based on hours rather than class year.

Below 1800: $10K
1800-1999: $20K
2000-2299: $30K
2300-2599: $40K
More than 2600: $50K

Very interesting approach. I’d imagine that busy mid levels at other firms are probably jealous of the pay scale.

i keep banging on about it but this continues to reinforce that this is a 'please don't leave' to the finance / rx crowd. wouldn't want to be a litigator or non-transactional lawyer when the axe starts swinging away at dead wood next year.

[Anonymous User]

Weil bonuses are out. Based on hours rather than class year.

Below 1800: $10K
1800-1999: $20K
2000-2299: $30K
2300-2599: $40K
More than 2600: $50K

Very interesting approach. I’d imagine that busy mid levels at other firms are probably jealous of the pay scale.

i keep banging on about it but this continues to reinforce that this is a 'please don't leave' to the finance / rx crowd. wouldn't want to be a litigator or non-transactional lawyer when the axe starts swinging away at dead wood next year.

Depends on the firm. Litigation has carried some firms in recent years. If Biden wins, white collar work will skyrocket.

[Anonymous User]

Weil bonuses are out. Based on hours rather than class year.

Below 1800: $10K
1800-1999: $20K
2000-2299: $30K
2300-2599: $40K
More than 2600: $50K

Very interesting approach. I’d imagine that busy mid levels at other firms are probably jealous of the pay scale.

i keep banging on about it but this continues to reinforce that this is a 'please don't leave' to the finance / rx crowd. wouldn't want to be a litigator or non-transactional lawyer when the axe starts swinging away at dead wood next year.

Depends on the firm. Litigation has carried some firms in recent years. If Biden wins, white collar work will skyrocket.

(Very interesting Anon from above).

Agreed. I am a lit associate at a V10 who is annualizing around 2700. Not unusual for my firm, from what I’ve heard.

[DoveBodyWash]

Clarifying hours are annualized based on 1/1-8/31

Weil bonuses are out. Based on hours rather than class year.

Below 1800: $10K
1800-1999: $20K
2000-2299: $30K
2300-2599: $40K
More than 2600: $50K

Holy shit this changes the game. A first-year that's billing 2600+ gets to take home 50K!? That's wild. Love it. K&E BTFO.

KE bk associates RIP

[POPTOP]

Weil bonuses are out. Based on hours rather than class year.

Below 1800: $10K
1800-1999: $20K
2000-2299: $30K
2300-2599: $40K
More than 2600: $50K

Very interesting approach. I’d imagine that busy mid levels at other firms are probably jealous of the pay scale.

i keep banging on about it but this continues to reinforce that this is a 'please don't leave' to the finance / rx crowd. wouldn't want to be a litigator or non-transactional lawyer when the axe starts swinging away at dead wood next year.

Depends on the firm. Litigation has carried some firms in recent years. If Biden wins, white collar work will skyrocket.

(Very interesting Anon from above).

Agreed. I am a lit associate at a V10 who is annualizing around 2700. Not unusual for my firm, from what I’ve heard.

in the five years i was at dpw they couldn't sack litigators fast enough but can accept that perhaps at some of the other top ny shops there are lit practices still doing numbers.

[Anonymous User]

As a Skadden associate who took off 3 weeks for a wedding and honeymoon pre pandemic but who still has been slammed from March onward, I’ll be disappointed if I wind up with nearly 10k less than my friends at SullCrom in the same class year who have billed the same amount as me year-to-date. But hard to argue with Weil’s approach — it certainly seems very fair.

[Anonymous User]

Anon obvi, but if this is true then a lot of associates at Kirkland, including myself, are going to be out this fall or early January. We were told this was a client optics thing based on bankruptcy clients. Obviously Weil entering into the mix erases that argument. Especially given the hours-based portion here for Weil, there is no way we get made whole and it’s just a giant slap in the face for a law firm that will make 5 billion this year. Working here doesn’t make sense if we’re going to all bill 2600 a year and not get paid for it while peers and lesser firms do the right thing. Firm is crazy if they think associates will stay after this.

Weil bonuses are out. Based on hours rather than class year.

Below 1800: $10K
1800-1999: $20K
2000-2299: $30K
2300-2599: $40K
More than 2600: $50K

Very interesting approach. I’d imagine that busy mid levels at other firms are probably jealous of the pay scale.

i keep banging on about it but this continues to reinforce that this is a 'please don't leave' to the finance / rx crowd. wouldn't want to be a litigator or non-transactional lawyer when the axe starts swinging away at dead wood next year.

[Tr3]

As a Skadden associate who took off 3 weeks for a wedding and honeymoon pre pandemic but who still has been slammed from March onward, I’ll be disappointed if I wind up with nearly 10k less than my friends at SullCrom in the same class year who have billed the same amount as me year-to-date. But hard to argue with Weil’s approach — it certainly seems very fair.

Yeah, I was thinking about this too -- what happens to people who took vacation time in the first part of the year. I guess SOL. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[cornerstone]

https://abovethelaw.com/2020/09/weil-of ... eyre-huge/

[malibustacy]

So what does "annualized" mean exactly for Weil? Is it the hours billed upto August 31 multipled by 1.5?

[NoLongerALurker]

So what does "annualized" mean exactly for Weil? Is it the hours billed upto August 31 multipled by 1.5?

Hours billed up to Aug 31, probably divided by whatever day of the year Aug 31 is, probably times 365. So roughly multiple by 1.5

Estimates for Aug 31 hours would be, to save people time:

Below 1800 hours – $10,000 = 1200
1800-1999 hours – $20,000 = 1200 to 1333
2000-2299 hours – $30,000 = 133 to 1532
2300-2599 hours – $40,000 = 1532 to 1732
More than 2600 hours – $50,000 = 1733+

[Anonymous User]

K&E midlevel here. No joke, 2 associates in my class year just submitted applications to Weil, a few others to Milbank. Goal is to take the year-end bonus and bounce. It's clear that the firm is no longer interested in leading the pack on compensation, might as well move to a place where compensation truly matters.

[legalpotato]

Lol -- Weil firing shots at K&E across the bow. I anticipate exhausted K&E RX associates are prepping their resumes for Weil as we speak. Imagine Weil is going to be the only big RX shop left in the game after the mass K&E defections.

[LBJ's Hair]

Some Weil BFR first years are getting extremely drunk tonight. (Unless they're working. They're probably working.)

[collegewriter]

Some Weil BFR first years are getting extremely drunk tonight. (Unless they're working. They're probably working.)

Why not both? Your post made me laugh. Thank you.

[LawIsLife]

Do we think Cravath will match this and soon?

[estefanchanning]

K&E midlevel here. No joke, 2 associates in my class year just submitted applications to Weil, a few others to Milbank. Goal is to take the year-end bonus and bounce. It's clear that the firm is no longer interested in leading the pack on compensation, might as well move to a place where compensation truly matters.

My firm would love to have you or any of your colleagues. We're definitely a compensation leader. PM me if interested.

[everythingbagel]

Would the anon lit associate above who is annualizing around 2700 please DM me? Thanks.

[Pulsar]

How about a lit associate who is annualizing about 1850 ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[legalpotato]

K&E midlevel here. No joke, 2 associates in my class year just submitted applications to Weil, a few others to Milbank. Goal is to take the year-end bonus and bounce. It's clear that the firm is no longer interested in leading the pack on compensation, might as well move to a place where compensation truly matters.

My firm would love to have you or any of your colleagues. We're definitely a compensation leader. PM me if interested.

Are you referring to Weil? Or DPW? Or Milbank? Or Cooley? Hell, at this point I imagine even Mrs. Freshfields Cookies would be a jump up in preftige and compensation for K&E associates.