Kirkland Bonuses? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Also interested in hearing more on “how frequently 4th years get 2” and whether it’s unusual for people who got to become NSPs to get a 3 for their 4th year review. Does it vary by practice group?

I got a 2 as a 4th year and a 1 as a 5th year. Don't know what I got as a 6th year because they never gave me a review lol, but made NSP so assume it was a 1. I was not considered a rockstar associate, but am pretty well regarded. Think what that means is probably less than half of folks get a 2 as a 4th year, but it's certainly not so rare that you are destined for shares if you do get a 2. I suspect it is not unusual at all for someone to get a 3 as a 4th year (or even 5th year) to make NSP--yes they will weed a few people out rather than make them NSP but if you have an ok reputation by the time you are a senior associate you are almost certainly going to make NSP.

Btw, I did not find that the reviews had much to do with bonus amount. The multiplier when I got 2/1 reviews was only marginally higher than when I was a 3.

[Anonymous User]

Bringing this back up for bonus season. Anybody think Kirkland will be more aggressive with multipliers considering the year we've had? Maybe for the ultra-high hours folks

[tls843539]

Are KE bonuses typically paid in December or January?

[Anonymous User]

Hoping the Ballis town hall next week is an announcement of market shattering bonuses.

[dyemond]

Bringing this back up for bonus season. Anybody think Kirkland will be more aggressive with multipliers considering the year we've had? Maybe for the ultra-high hours folks

It's going to literally be a repeat of last year - %-beat on the base, removal of the high-biller brake and big multipliers for favored associates, no other changes, book it.

[Anonymous User]

Bringing this back up for bonus season. Anybody think Kirkland will be more aggressive with multipliers considering the year we've had? Maybe for the ultra-high hours folks

It's going to literally be a repeat of last year - %-beat on the base, removal of the high-biller brake and big multipliers for favored associates, no other changes, book it.

When is the town hall? I somehow don't have it on my calendar.

[Anonymous User]

Bringing this back up for bonus season. Anybody think Kirkland will be more aggressive with multipliers considering the year we've had? Maybe for the ultra-high hours folks

I try to think in terms of what your average 2,000 hour 3-rating (with class) associate is going to get, because that's the baseline. It'd be nice to see that individual getting a 1.4x market, which I believe would represent a minor improvement over 2020 (where my sense is they set that baseline at about 1.3x market), which itself was an improvement over the historical trend of compression down toward a 1.2x as the firm was getting cheaper over the past few years despite rising revenue and PPP, at least until COVID hit and people started quitting en masse. To me the baseline matters the most because that affects everything else.

[Anonymous User]

The answer to this has probably been posted elsewhere but I'm too lazy to look.

Did Kirkland NSPs receive the mid-year bonuses like their peer senior associates or was the expectation that it would roll into the year-end comp? Or, far worse, no prospect of being trued up?

[Anonymous User]

The answer to this has probably been posted elsewhere but I'm too lazy to look.

Did Kirkland NSPs receive the mid-year bonuses like their peer senior associates or was the expectation that it would roll into the year-end comp? Or, far worse, no prospect of being trued up?

KE NSPs received the exact same spring / fall bonuses that equivalent peers at other firms did. I can't imagine KE would ever do anything to the contrary; there would be mass defections--the supposed point of being an NSP is better comp. (the extent to which this is true has been discussed here ad nauseam and the short answer is we do make more, though it's by a moderate amount and gets more black-boxy after the 8th year).

[Anonymous User]

The answer to this has probably been posted elsewhere but I'm too lazy to look.

Did Kirkland NSPs receive the mid-year bonuses like their peer senior associates or was the expectation that it would roll into the year-end comp? Or, far worse, no prospect of being trued up?

They received the mid-year bonuses on same timeline as associates

[Anonymous User]

Before the Cravath and DPW raises, SPs were telling me I’d be getting a “hefty bonus” this year for 2400 during the 2021 bonus year year (probably because they saw I was annualizing 2700+ this calendar year).

The multiplier this year better be meaningful or the quit rate will be even higher in 2022 - yes, higher than the 300-400 associates we lost in 2021. I’m so tired of seeing our best juniors leave for other firms where they can more reliably bill 1900-2000.

[Anonymous User]

Do we know if Kirkland’s bonuses are always paid out on 12/31? Or is there a chance it is paid out earlier?

[Anonymous User]

Do we know if Kirkland’s bonuses are always paid out on 12/31? Or is there a chance it is paid out earlier?

I've seen it both ways -- sometimes they've come a little earlier on a random date last week of December e.g., 12/28, and sometimes they roll it into the final ordinary payment of the calendar year (which would be 12/31 this year). Last year I believed they rolled it all in and my hunch is that will happen again.

[Anonymous User]

Before the Cravath and DPW raises, SPs were telling me I’d be getting a “hefty bonus” this year for 2400 during the 2021 bonus year year (probably because they saw I was annualizing 2700+ this calendar year).

The multiplier this year better be meaningful or the quit rate will be even higher in 2022 - yes, higher than the 300-400 associates we lost in 2021. I’m so tired of seeing our best juniors leave for other firms where they can more reliably bill 1900-2000.

This fuels my conspiracy theory that plenty of firms in the V25 were poised this year for a 1.5x or even 2x scale increase before Cravath fucked over everyone by setting the "Overton window" so low.

[Ultramar vistas]

Before the Cravath and DPW raises, SPs were telling me I’d be getting a “hefty bonus” this year for 2400 during the 2021 bonus year year (probably because they saw I was annualizing 2700+ this calendar year).

The multiplier this year better be meaningful or the quit rate will be even higher in 2022 - yes, higher than the 300-400 associates we lost in 2021. I’m so tired of seeing our best juniors leave for other firms where they can more reliably bill 1900-2000.

This fuels my conspiracy theory that plenty of firms in the V25 were poised this year for a 1.5x or even 2x scale increase before Cravath fucked over everyone by setting the "Overton window" so low.

Weird way to spell Cravattth.

[Anonymous User]

Bringing this back up for bonus season. Anybody think Kirkland will be more aggressive with multipliers considering the year we've had? Maybe for the ultra-high hours folks

It's going to literally be a repeat of last year - %-beat on the base, removal of the high-biller brake and big multipliers for favored associates, no other changes, book it.

When is the town hall? I somehow don't have it on my calendar.

Wednesday at 11 AM ET. Looks to be a Zoom again this year, which is funny to me since the firm has pushed us to RTO. (In the pre Covid days, they’d set up a livestream link in my non-Chicago office and we’d all go to a conference room and watch the presentation to that room full of lawyers.)

[Anonymous User]

Bringing this back up for bonus season. Anybody think Kirkland will be more aggressive with multipliers considering the year we've had? Maybe for the ultra-high hours folks

It's going to literally be a repeat of last year - %-beat on the base, removal of the high-biller brake and big multipliers for favored associates, no other changes, book it.

When is the town hall? I somehow don't have it on my calendar.

Wednesday at 11 AM ET. Looks to be a Zoom again this year, which is funny to me since the firm has pushed us to RTO. (In the pre Covid days, they’d set up a livestream link in my non-Chicago office and we’d all go to a conference room and watch the presentation to that room full of lawyers.)

Given the large number of full-time remote associates that they’ve hired into the Chicago office, I suspect the bonus meeting will be on zoom for the foreseeable future. Really a shame because they provided much more information about the range of bonuses in past years than they did on zoom last year.

[Anonymous User]

Considering a Kirkland offer. Did everyone at the firm that the special bonuses during the year? Or was it limited to certain groups or by some kind of hours requirement?

[Anonymous User]

Considering a Kirkland offer. Did everyone at the firm that the special bonuses during the year? Or was it limited to certain groups or by some kind of hours requirement?

Everyone got it and no hours requirement.

[Anonymous User]

Considering a Kirkland offer. Did everyone at the firm that the special bonuses during the year? Or was it limited to certain groups or by some kind of hours requirement?

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.

[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.

[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)

[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).

[Anonymous User]

Okay so what's the thought as far as timing? Town hall happens tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11am Eastern, bonus calls and memos start going out that afternoon? There was an NSP memo that went out a couple weeks ago indicating that the NSP comp. committee was meeting the week of December 13 so that would line up with this if they want to keep associates and NSPs on the same schedule. (Last year they were super late--I heard of people not getting info until close to Christmas.)

[Ultramar vistas]

Okay so what's the thought as far as timing? Town hall happens tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11am Eastern, bonus calls and memos start going out that afternoon? There was an NSP memo that went out a couple weeks ago indicating that the NSP comp. committee was meeting the week of December 13 so that would line up with this if they want to keep associates and NSPs on the same schedule. (Last year they were super late--I heard of people not getting info until close to Christmas.)

Last year everyone got their bonus memos simultaneously on the evening of the 18th. Can’t remember when the town hall but I think it was earlier that day. It’s possible memos go out tomorrow but wouldn’t surprise me if it’s Friday.