Jones Day Compensation Data Points Forum

[Anonymous User]

It is always interesting to listen to JD associates during bonus season.

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

It is always interesting to listen to JD associates during bonus season.

Why is this anon?

[Anonymous User]

I’ll echo an earlier poster that morale is at an all-time low. At my secondary city office, most folks either did not get a raise this year or received a nominal amount (like 5k). The firm is doing better this year than last, so it’s a pretty awful time to be a JD associate.

[Anonymous User]

Agree with earlier posts. In a major market and I know of several associates who are looking to lateral, and I'm sure there are more that I don't know about. Lots of people are unhappy with firm leadership right now. This last round of comp decisions has put us so far behind market that it makes no sense to stay if you have other options.

[Anonymous User]

Non-NYC/LA/DC market and I normally make close to market for my year (yes, including after bonuses are factored in). Received the most pathetic raise this year. Definitely unhappy and exploring my options.

[Anonymous User]

Non-NYC/LA/DC market and I normally make close to market for my year (yes, including after bonuses are factored in). Received the most pathetic raise this year. Definitely unhappy and exploring my options.

I don’t know anyone in my secondary office that makes actual market. So props but also shows how rampant JD’s underpaying is. Also know lots of folks looking elsewhere now. Enough is enough.

[Anonymous User]

Some - but not all - associates in our office received an email today from our office partner in charge stating we select associates would be getting retroactive raises to July 1, 2020.

[Anonymous User]

Some - but not all - associates in our office received an email today from our office partner in charge stating we select associates would be getting retroactive raises to July 1, 2020.

Our office got the same, though I hadn’t realized it didn’t go out to everyone. Any word on the pay we can expect? Our letters were mailed out yesterday.

[Anonymous User]

For any JD associates, if you haven’t received a letter yet (I haven’t), just check your pay statement for today’s paycheck. You’ll see what your new “hourly rate” is, which you can use to calculate your new salary. Mine was... meh. As for being happy or annoyed, I’ll wait to see what the explanation is in the letter (ie is there any indication it’s still compressed because of the weirdness of this year).

[Anonymous User]

For any JD associates, if you haven’t received a letter yet (I haven’t), just check your pay statement for today’s paycheck. You’ll see what your new “hourly rate” is, which you can use to calculate your new salary. Mine was... meh. As for being happy or annoyed, I’ll wait to see what the explanation is in the letter (ie is there any indication it’s still compressed because of the weirdness of this year).

Is this meant to be a retroactive true up? My direct deposit has like 2k more than usual paychecks. Which leads me to believe I got a 5k raise this year. And if so I am out.

[Anonymous User]

For any JD associates, if you haven’t received a letter yet (I haven’t), just check your pay statement for today’s paycheck. You’ll see what your new “hourly rate” is, which you can use to calculate your new salary. Mine was... meh. As for being happy or annoyed, I’ll wait to see what the explanation is in the letter (ie is there any indication it’s still compressed because of the weirdness of this year).

Thanks for the tip, I just calculated my adjustment as insultingly low.

[Anonymous User]

Also received a pretty meh raise. To be honest, I think the firm would've been better off not to have given out these insulting "raises." It feels like a slap in the face. I bet the partners are doing alright, though.

[Anonymous User]

For any JD associates, if you haven’t received a letter yet (I haven’t), just check your pay statement for today’s paycheck. You’ll see what your new “hourly rate” is, which you can use to calculate your new salary. Mine was... meh. As for being happy or annoyed, I’ll wait to see what the explanation is in the letter (ie is there any indication it’s still compressed because of the weirdness of this year).

Is this meant to be a retroactive true up? My direct deposit has like 2k more than usual paychecks. Which leads me to believe I got a 5k raise this year. And if so I am out.

Not sure until we get the letter, but seems like a combined payment of our new, post-raise bimonthly pay plus a 10-pay-period true-up back to July 1.

[Anonymous User]

For any JD associates, if you haven’t received a letter yet (I haven’t), just check your pay statement for today’s paycheck. You’ll see what your new “hourly rate” is, which you can use to calculate your new salary. Mine was... meh. As for being happy or annoyed, I’ll wait to see what the explanation is in the letter (ie is there any indication it’s still compressed because of the weirdness of this year).

Is this meant to be a retroactive true up? My direct deposit has like 2k more than usual paychecks. Which leads me to believe I got a 5k raise this year. And if so I am out.

Not sure until we get the letter, but seems like a combined payment of our new, post-raise bimonthly pay plus a 10-pay-period true-up back to July 1.

The raises seem insultingly low -- about as bad as what was seen in July with the no-raise/tiny raise/cut in pay.

I wonder if this varies by practice group? Some practice areas are doing really well in New York and there have been tons of associates departures from JD out of those groups due to the low pay. And in those practice groups, I can say with confidence that all of the remaining associates are exploring their options. All of them.

[Anonymous User]

For any JD associates, if you haven’t received a letter yet (I haven’t), just check your pay statement for today’s paycheck. You’ll see what your new “hourly rate” is, which you can use to calculate your new salary. Mine was... meh. As for being happy or annoyed, I’ll wait to see what the explanation is in the letter (ie is there any indication it’s still compressed because of the weirdness of this year).

Is this meant to be a retroactive true up? My direct deposit has like 2k more than usual paychecks. Which leads me to believe I got a 5k raise this year. And if so I am out.

Not sure until we get the letter, but seems like a combined payment of our new, post-raise bimonthly pay plus a 10-pay-period true-up back to July 1.

The raises seem insultingly low -- about as bad as what was seen in July with the no-raise/tiny raise/cut in pay.

I wonder if this varies by practice group? Some practice areas are doing really well in New York and there have been tons of associates departures from JD out of those groups due to the low pay. And in those practice groups, I can say with confidence that all of the remaining associates are exploring their options. All of them.

Let me guess. Bankruptcy.

[Anonymous User]

For any JD associates, if you haven’t received a letter yet (I haven’t), just check your pay statement for today’s paycheck. You’ll see what your new “hourly rate” is, which you can use to calculate your new salary. Mine was... meh. As for being happy or annoyed, I’ll wait to see what the explanation is in the letter (ie is there any indication it’s still compressed because of the weirdness of this year).

Is this meant to be a retroactive true up? My direct deposit has like 2k more than usual paychecks. Which leads me to believe I got a 5k raise this year. And if so I am out.

Not sure until we get the letter, but seems like a combined payment of our new, post-raise bimonthly pay plus a 10-pay-period true-up back to July 1.

The raises seem insultingly low -- about as bad as what was seen in July with the no-raise/tiny raise/cut in pay.

I wonder if this varies by practice group? Some practice areas are doing really well in New York and there have been tons of associates departures from JD out of those groups due to the low pay. And in those practice groups, I can say with confidence that all of the remaining associates are exploring their options. All of them.

I think these are still based on 2019 reviews. Our PIC said they were adjustments to our 2020 comp. Either way 100% agreed, insultingly low.

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone else also feel like it's about time the firm elects a new MP? The last few years have been pretty damn rough

[Definitely Not North]

The fact that you guys are even having these conversations makes JD seem extra terrible relative to other biglaw. Particularly those in major markets with lots of other options, do you all just love JD such that you want to stay and deal with this kind of stuff? What keeps you there?

[Anonymous User]

The fact that you guys are even having these conversations makes JD seem extra terrible relative to other biglaw. Particularly those in major markets with lots of other options, do you all just love JD such that you want to stay and deal with this kind of stuff? What keeps you there?

I’m in a major market and there has been a significant number of departures this fall/winter. I suspect these were a result of the firm’s compensation decisions and its position and reaction to certain litigation it is involved in.

I think with what we’re seeing on this forum, not much is left to keep people here.

[Anonymous User]

The fact that you guys are even having these conversations makes JD seem extra terrible relative to other biglaw. Particularly those in major markets with lots of other options, do you all just love JD such that you want to stay and deal with this kind of stuff? What keeps you there?

Second this. JD associates have solid credentials and work just as hard as other biglaw associates. Why stick around and get paid less? It's one thing to make the choice as a law student who didn't really know any better (I certainly did not and JD was one of my OCI picks), but getting overworked and underpaid and a toxic culture to boot? Makes no sense.

[Anonymous User]

.

[Definitely Not North]

like, you all are literally having to reverse engineer from your pay stubs to confirm that you are being paid below market. lol

[Anonymous User]

The fact that you guys are even having these conversations makes JD seem extra terrible relative to other biglaw. Particularly those in major markets with lots of other options, do you all just love JD such that you want to stay and deal with this kind of stuff? What keeps you there?

Second this. JD associates have solid credentials and work just as hard as other biglaw associates. Why stick around and get paid less? It's one thing to make the choice as a law student who didn't really know any better (I certainly did not and JD was one of my OCI picks), but getting overworked and underpaid and a toxic culture to boot? Makes no sense.

Personally, because I'm in a market-paying, secondary market where there aren't a lot of decent big firms, JD is known for having better work-life here compared to other firms, and I'm committed to staying in my area since I own a home and my family is located here which makes childcare easy. Just biding my time until I hit my savings goal for adding an addition to my house and then I'm going in-house.

[Anonymous User]

The fact that you guys are even having these conversations makes JD seem extra terrible relative to other biglaw. Particularly those in major markets with lots of other options, do you all just love JD such that you want to stay and deal with this kind of stuff? What keeps you there?

Second this. JD associates have solid credentials and work just as hard as other biglaw associates. Why stick around and get paid less? It's one thing to make the choice as a law student who didn't really know any better (I certainly did not and JD was one of my OCI picks), but getting overworked and underpaid and a toxic culture to boot? Makes no sense.

Personally, because I'm in a market-paying, secondary market where there aren't a lot of decent big firms, JD is known for having better work-life here compared to other firms, and I'm committed to staying in my area since I own a home and my family is located here which makes childcare easy. Just biding my time until I hit my savings goal for adding an addition to my house and then I'm going in-house.

Ditto all of this. But I genuinely enjoy the people also—despite the more controversial politics and problems with the black box, nearly everyone I get to work with is thoughtful, personable, not pretentious, and just generally not a jerk. On the more cynical side, I’m a mid-level associate, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense to move and restart at another firm if I’m just going to go in-house eventually anyway.

All this said, definitely bummed about what appears to be my raise. (Just for tracking purposes, I already posted above about that.)

[Anonymous User]

I’m a mid level in a major market (NYC/LA/SF/Boston etc). My compensation has been market every year although for 2021 I expect to make Cravath scale + bonus but without the “special” bonus. I like the people at the firm and I have no plans to leave. I think one of the reasons some attorneys choose JD is because there are better odds of becoming a partner if that is something you’re interested in (https://www.jonesday.com/en/news/2020/1 ... t=BCc0cpaN).