Skadden Retention Bonuses Forum

[Idontwanttomakeaname]

Why is ATL not reporting on this?

I think it's similar to how ATL hasn't been reporting on K&E and other firms giving 6 figure signing bonuses even though everyone is talking about / hearing about it.

I think it’s hard to verify that information, which is why they don’t.

Yup. ATL is not journalism, it’s a bunch of hacks so they can’t be bothered to publish anything that isn’t literally “here is something someone else published or which someone emailed us a memo about”

To be fair, sometimes they like to actively undercut the labor market by publishing their annual “Boomer PubCo General Counsel with 3 homes that is comfortable with Partners making $5M dollars is deeply offended by 4th year associate receiving moderate inflation-aligned raise that may allow her to pay off crippling law school debt” article.

You give them too much credit, those are mostly just quotes from law.com articles.

[Anonymous User]

I think this is real (and long overdue). Transactional practices bring in a ton more money, the exit opps are a lot better, the lifestyle is worse and everybody has been short on transactional associates for like 5 years. I see no compelling reason why firms continue to pay lit associates (who get billed out at hundreds of dollars less, collect fewer of their hours worked, are easier to find on the lateral market and don't have the exit options) should be paid the same as transactional associates.

If this was fake, why isn't their a single post from someone saying I am a Skadden mid level, I didn't get this and none of my classmates got it either.

.

[legalpotato]

Why is ATL not reporting on this?

I think it's similar to how ATL hasn't been reporting on K&E and other firms giving 6 figure signing bonuses even though everyone is talking about / hearing about it.

I think it’s hard to verify that information, which is why they don’t.

Yup. ATL is not journalism, it’s a bunch of hacks so they can’t be bothered to publish anything that isn’t literally “here is something someone else published or which someone emailed us a memo about”

To be fair, sometimes they like to actively undercut the labor market by publishing their annual “Boomer PubCo General Counsel with 3 homes that is comfortable with Partners making $5M dollars is deeply offended by 4th year associate receiving moderate inflation-aligned raise that may allow her to pay off crippling law school debt” article.

Yep - they are bitter cause they either never got biglaw or didn't last past year 1, but their bitterness is weirdly directed at associates while they bootlick top brass.

[Anonymous User]

I love how people in this thread are now butthurt about ATL because they aren’t reporting about a speculative story about retention bonuses. Until someone can provide definitive proof that this is happening, why would ATL report on it?

[Idontwanttomakeaname]

I love how people in this thread are now butthurt about ATL because they aren’t reporting about a speculative story about retention bonuses. Until someone can provide definitive proof that this is happening, why would ATL report on it?

1. Very brave and appropriate use of anon

2. You are right, if only there were some sort of organization that could gather the facts so we would know for sure… perhaps they could even write some sort of summary of their findings for us! But nothing like that exists

[Wubbles]

How are there still people who think these bonuses are "speculative"? I know multiple people at Skadden, the bonuses are real but the details are murky.

[Anonymous User]

How are there still people who think these bonuses are "speculative"? I know multiple people at Skadden, the bonuses are real but the details are murky.

If ATL isn't willing to break this story, maybe Bloomberg Law will.

[2013]

Nonequitypartner mentioned it, so now ATL will probably do so as well.

[Pulsar]

ATL used to be more journalistic and down for risk-taking "what we're hearing," back when David Lat was more involved. It started downhill with Joe Patrice writing more bad hot takes and the end of the comments section years ago -- the commenters were savage and would tear apart any dumb article, and were a huge source of entertainment/scuttlebutt themselves. RIP.

[AureliusCapital]

ATL is terrible. I’m stunned there’s no alternative yet. I love when they make you go to the next page to see a 3 word answer.

[Anonymous User]

According to one of the messages nonequitypartner got, 2nd years are getting 100K and 1st years are getting nothing at Skadden? And midlevels/seniors are getting barely more than 2nd years according to people in this thread. What a bizarre scale if that is true.

Do people think 1st years will get something if other firms match these bonuses? Even 1st years can lateral in this market.

[Anonymous User]

According to one of the messages nonequitypartner got, 2nd years are getting 100K and 1st years are getting nothing at Skadden? And midlevels/seniors are getting barely more than 2nd years according to people in this thread. What a bizarre scale if that is true.

Do people think 1st years will get something if other firms match these bonuses? Even 1st years can lateral in this market.

Differs by practice group. Some practice groups, no one gets anything. So far I've only heard confirmation in three practice groups (cap markets, M&A and ECB). I've also heard complaints from banking and restructuring that no one has gotten anything (but it's possible their calls just are going out later --- I know some people in some of the non NY offices were only getting calls the past couple of days in M&A, for example, even though M&A calls in NY went out almost two weeks ago).

In some practice groups, second years are getting 100k, then third years up through counsel are all getting slightly more. In some practice groups, second years get nada. As far as I can tell, in all practice groups, recent laterals and first years get nada.

At the junior level (like second/third year), seems like cap markets or ECB might actually be pulling in more than M&A. At fourth year and above, looks like M&A is paying out the most (by like, 5-10k...so not an eye popping difference).

Fascinated to see what the messaging is going to be if they ever make a firm wide announcement of these.

[Anonymous User]

Restructuring I can kind of see (although have heard multiple complaints from restructuring people who've either been busy on restructuring or helping out a ton in CM), but insane that banking is not getting anything since they have been crazy.

Skadden is internally structured into Lit, Corp, and Regulatory. Banking and Restructuring (and of course M&A CM) are all organized under Corp. ECB and Tax are under Regulatory. Would make sense for all of Corp and Regulatory to get these bonuses. Sad for Lit tho.

Haven't heard any angry people from lit or regulatory.

[Anonymous User]

Has there been a time before in biglaw where a firm offered bonuses or compensation to certain practice groups, but not others? It seems like up until now, in the entire industry, comp was differentiated by hours billed if at all.

Will be interesting to see how this is matched by other firms who might not have the same appetite to break down that wall of treating all groups the same. I know at my V10, the party line is that our practice diversity keeps the ship going in both good and bad economies; we have counter-cyclical practice groups when deal work dries up, and litigation is also there as a less-cyclical practice to keep money flowing in in bear markets. I don't know if our firm committee would be open to offering six-figure bonuses to associates in only some (admittedly overwhelmed) practice groups right now, but I am sure we will soon see.

[Anonymous User]

ATL article is out. Fingers crossed we'll see some movement from other firms.

I'm going to be shocked if the rest of the top NY firms let Skadden pay associates $100K+ more than everyone else, excluding WLRK. Will be interesting to see if other firms will only give them to certain practice groups, or if Skadden will even stick with that now that these are public.

[Anonymous User]

While I think the retention bonuses are generally a smart idea in lieu of increased year-end bonuses, I truly don’t know how Skadden expects to get away with only paying them to certain groups and excluding laterals. The amount of tension that will cause within the firm and among people of the same class year…

[lawyer098]

Link? I don’t see it on ATL.

ATL article is out. Fingers crossed we'll see some movement from other firms.

I'm going to be shocked if the rest of the top NY firms let Skadden pay associates $100K+ more than everyone else, excluding WLRK. Will be interesting to see if other firms will only give them to certain practice groups, or if Skadden will even stick with that now that these are public.

[TigerIsBack]

Link? I don’t see it on ATL.

ATL article is out. Fingers crossed we'll see some movement from other firms.

I'm going to be shocked if the rest of the top NY firms let Skadden pay associates $100K+ more than everyone else, excluding WLRK. Will be interesting to see if other firms will only give them to certain practice groups, or if Skadden will even stick with that now that these are public.

https://abovethelaw.com/2021/08/is-skad ... ssociates/

[Ultramar vistas]

Honestly kind of surprised we haven’t seen widespread retention bonuses already. Given how expensive laterals are and how widely the hit rate on quality hires varies, its got to be worth it at some point to just start paying people to stay. I mean, I guess Skadden came to that conclusion themselves, so clearly it makes economic sense. Aside from anything else, if done correctly, it’s so much better for morale and loyalty to just pay people what they’re worth on the market rather than making associates feel undervalued.

[Anonymous User]

I think people may be drawing too many false parallels between Skadden and other V20 firms. Skadden let lots of people depart before they even thought to break from their norm of not making many lateral hires. It was too late at that point, and then they started begrudgingly offering paltry referral and signing incentives that haven’t work. Fast forward a few more months, they’re deeper in the hole and finally faced reality. They are in a position where they both need to retain almost everyone and hire more associates because years of attrition happened in months with next to zero lateral hires. Other firms may be net negative on head count but few firms were so selective and slow in turning to aggressive lateral hiring. I have doubts that other firms are considering retention bonuses even as I see everyone burnt out everywhere in M&A and capital markets. Other V10 law firms are having enough hiring success lowering standards and raising signing incentives.

ETA: these Skadden retention bonuses buy them enough time to get another class in and hire more associates, but I wouldn’t expect retained mid levels to stay beyond summer or yearend 2022. For this reason, lateral hiring might be more appealing to get fresh associates instead of burnt-out, jaded associates who only re-up every time a new special bonus is put on the horizon.

[Anonymous User]

I think people may be drawing too many false parallels between Skadden and other V20 firms. Skadden let lots of people depart before they even thought to break from their norm of not making many lateral hires. It was too late at that point, and then they started begrudgingly offering paltry referral and signing incentives that haven’t work. Fast forward a few more months, they’re deeper in the hole and finally faced reality. They are in a position where they both need to retain almost everyone and hire more associates because years of attrition happened in months with next to zero lateral hires. Other firms may be net negative on head count but few firms were so selective and slow in turning to aggressive lateral hiring. I have doubts that other firms are considering retention bonuses even as I see everyone burnt out everywhere in M&A and capital markets. Other V10 law firms are having enough hiring success lowering standards and raising signing incentives.

ETA: these Skadden retention bonuses buy them enough time to get another class in and hire more associates, but I wouldn’t expect retained mid levels to stay beyond summer or yearend 2022. For this reason, lateral hiring might be more appealing to get fresh associates instead of burnt-out, jaded associates who only re-up every time a new special bonus is put on the horizon.

Yea 100% this. I heard from a friend who's in one of Skadden's corp groups that their 2019 CM class has like 5 folks total left, and they're all being offered up to 100k to stay. The 2019 M&A associates are being offered only 1/3 to 1/2 of that, bc there's like 20 of them

[Wubbles]

While I think the retention bonuses are generally a smart idea in lieu of increased year-end bonuses, I truly don’t know how Skadden expects to get away with only paying them to certain groups and excluding laterals. The amount of tension that will cause within the firm and among people of the same class year…

The laterals get signing bonuses in lieu of retention bonuses (which have a lockup and function the same way). If they were getting both, there would be anarchy. People at Kirkland already get pissed at the lateral bonuses when they don't get retention bonuses

[Anonymous User]

Why is the ATL story on this buried on their homepage and not the headline story? If this thread didn’t exist and I visited ATL’s site, I genuinely would not even know this was a thing. It won’t get the traction we want if it isn’t at the top of the page.

[Ultramar vistas]

Why is the ATL story on this buried on their homepage and not the headline story? If this thread didn’t exist and I visited ATL’s site, I genuinely would not even know this was a thing. It won’t get the traction we want if it isn’t at the top of the page.

It’s the first thing you see when you visit on mobile, so who knows.

Facts is, this just isn’t going to get traction like a traditional bonus season. Skadden’s being all coy about it, so firms have plausible deniability. Maybe it’ll show the way to some other firms such that un-asked-for retention bonuses become more common, but there’s not going to be some spree of matching, unfortunately.

[Buglaw]

Why is the ATL story on this buried on their homepage and not the headline story? If this thread didn’t exist and I visited ATL’s site, I genuinely would not even know this was a thing. It won’t get the traction we want if it isn’t at the top of the page.

It’s the first thing you see when you visit on mobile, so who knows.

Facts is, this just isn’t going to get traction like a traditional bonus season. Skadden’s being all coy about it, so firms have plausible deniability. Maybe it’ll show the way to some other firms such that un-asked-for retention bonuses become more common, but there’s not going to be some spree of matching, unfortunately.

I still think most elite firms match. I mean no way does Kirkland tell its associates that Skadden pays more for Corp associates. I just don't see that happening.