2021 Special Bonuses Forum

[Anonymous User]

Covington just announced.

As an incoming SA I have been waiting for this lol

[Anonymous User]

[DELETED]

[Anonymous User]

https://abovethelaw.com/2021/04/mayer-b ... l-bonuses/

[Anonymous User]

Please update the wall of shame with any firms listed here and not already on the wall (TYIA): https://abovethelaw.com/2021/04/wheres- ... nuses-yet/

[Anonymous User]

Anyone here from Eversheds know if spring bonuses are likely?

[broadstreet11]

Covington just announced.

As an incoming SA I have been waiting for this lol

Any details on Cov's requirements/structure?

[Anonymous User]

These firms should all be embarrassed. How do MOFO, Wilmer, Gibson, etc. allow Sheppard Mullin to match before them. SAD!

Not to take away from your point, but Sheppard has not matched yet.

Do we think they will?

Probably. A number of peer firms, financially speaking, have matched and it's not like they don't have the money. Like every slow-mover, Sheppard self-describes as financially conservative and hasn't seemed worried in the past about moving slow-ish on these things.

[Anonymous User]

MoFo really living up to its name

[Anonymous User]

Gibson actually doesn't always pay lockstep bonuses. One of my friends got paid an under-market bonus for a slow year (35k instead instead of 50k for year 3) and GD even kept the special fall bonuses individualized.

[Anonymous User]

Gibson actually doesn't always pay lockstep bonuses. One of my friends got paid an under-market bonus for a slow year (35k instead instead of 50k for year 3) and GD even kept the special fall bonuses individualized.

Woof. Guess that crosses Gibson off my lateral list...

[Anonymous User]

Will we ever get back to 2006/07 levels of inflation-adjusted comp (>$250K for 1st years)?

Or was that extreme level of comp a function of a uniquely frothy economy / legal market that we aren’t likely to see again?

[unseenforces]

Do these special and regular bonuses apply to ALL of the firm's offices, including London and Asia offices?

[lolwutpar]

Will we ever get back to 2006/07 levels of inflation-adjusted comp (>$250K for 1st years)?

Or was that extreme level of comp a function of a uniquely frothy economy / legal market that we aren’t likely to see again?

The economy and legal industry seems pretty fuckin' frothy to me right now.

[Anonymous User]

Irell announced. 10% of base salary, paid on April 30. Plus a Fall bonus equal to last year's DPW COVID bonus scale.

[Anonymous User]

Irell announced. 10% of base salary, paid on April 30. Plus a Fall bonus equal to last year's DPW COVID bonus scale.

That sounds like an astonishingly complicated way of getting close to the 2021 DPW scale. Must be saving the partnership a few thousand bucks on the margins.

[cheaptilts]

Irell announced. 10% of base salary, paid on April 30. Plus a Fall bonus equal to last year's DPW COVID bonus scale.

That sounds like an astonishingly complicated way of getting close to the 2021 DPW scale. Must be saving the partnership a few thousand bucks on the margins.

Sounds like it’s above market from my back-of-envelope calc.

[Anonymous User]

MoFo really living up to its name

MF assoc here: .

[Monochromatic Oeuvre]

Will we ever get back to 2006/07 levels of inflation-adjusted comp (>$250K for 1st years)?

Or was that extreme level of comp a function of a uniquely frothy economy / legal market that we aren’t likely to see again?

We're already at record inflation-adjusted comp for 4th years and up.

Comp for first years might keep going up on an inflation-adjusted basis but I don't think juniors and midlevels will ever be as close in comp as they used to be back then. The Great Recession was a structural change. A lot of the tasks that formerly employed an army of juniors, most especially huge doc review projects, were outsourced to low-cost centers (domestic and abroad) or just automated away. A lot of clients started to outright refuse to pay for junior work, and while that's obviously not as rigid as it was a decade ago, it's not back to the way it was. Overall first-year hiring went up in the past few years but AFAIK never got back to where it was in 2007. Worked out okay for students because law school enrollment tanked by 30% and never came back up, due to some combination of a pretty decent economy in the 2010s, the increasing awareness of debtpwnage, and the overall decline in the total population of twentysomethings.

DPW reset the bonus structure in 2014 to favor midlevels and seniors because work was getting hot again but there were very few people from the classes of 2008-2011 left (having all been fired, deferred into oblivion, no-offered or never hired at all), so their services were at a premium, and since then, comp has pretty much been less concerned with juniors and more concerned with keeping mids and seniors, who are, after all, ordinarily the most profitable--a fully realized senior this year could easily generate more than $2MM in revenue.

[Anonymous User]

MoFo really living up to its name

MF assoc here: .

It’s Friday afternoon already... where’s the bonus

[Anonymous User]

Irell announced. 10% of base salary, paid on April 30. Plus a Fall bonus equal to last year's DPW COVID bonus scale.

That sounds like an astonishingly complicated way of getting close to the 2021 DPW scale. Must be saving the partnership a few thousand bucks on the margins.

Sounds like it’s above market from my back-of-envelope calc.

Irell now always gives a Spring bonus based on a percentage of compensation and the previous year's financials. It is less straightforward, but blends the existing plan with a Fall bonus to stay above market. My quick calculations are:

Year/DPW/Irell

1 - $12,000 - ($19,000 (pro-rated) + $7,500)
2 - $16,000 - $29,000
3 - $32,000 - $40,000
4 - $44,000 - $49,500
5 - $52,000 - $57,500
6 - $59,200 - $64,500
7 - $64,000 - $69,500

[Anonymous User]

Gibson matched, same schedule as Latham and others, and a 1950 annualized hours requirement (with true up if you hit it by year end). Also stated “we do not anticipate that special bonuses will impact normal year-end bonuses,” which really means “we’ll do whatever Latham does with year end bonuses.”

[Anonymous User]

For those wondering, these seem to be the only v40s that haven’t announced a match yet:



V13 - Quinn
V16 - jones day (lol of course)
V20 - Williams and Connolly
V23 - MoFo
V27 - hogan
V29 - BSF
V32 - Arnold and porter
V33 - baker McKenzie
V38 - King and Spaulding

Once you drop below 40 it seems like a lot more firms haven’t made an announcement yet so I stopped here.

Is this list right? Does anyone else need to be shamed or removed from the list of shame?

Thank you. Shame lists are the way to go. My guess is that hogan, AP, Covington, and JD will stay on this list for a while.

Orrick announced.

egregious lack of MoFo shaming has been corrected

Updated wall of shame. SAD.

As we head into the weekend, the wall of shame is narrowed down to a select few truly non-elite firms. Great job fellas.

[Anonymous User]

https://abovethelaw.com/2021/04/covingt ... onus-2021/

CovingTTTon strikes again

[Anonymous User]

https://abovethelaw.com/2021/04/covingt ... onus-2021/

CovingTTTon strikes again

Lmfao

[Anonymous User]

https://abovethelaw.com/2021/04/covingt ... onus-2021/

CovingTTTon strikes again

Lmfao