2021 Special Bonuses Forum

[Anonymous User]

Did Skadden match DPW or Willkie?

[lolwutpar]

Uhh what's the point of a December special bonus?

Possibly to try to incentivize people to stay until then, but like you mentioned earlier, likely won't make a difference for those that are already half out the door

Does Skadden not pay annual bonuses Dec. 31/Jan. 1/Jan. 31? If so, I don't get the point of stacking a special bonus with the annual bonus. Doesn't have much of a retention effect.

So if I'm at a firm that pays in September could I....lateral to Skadden and get them to pay me end of year bonus as a signing bonus and double dip on the retention bonus?

Yes, most likely, but the special bonus would almost certainly be prorated based on your start date. So it wouldn't be that much. Better off negotiating a signing bonus and a guaranteed annual bonus.

[Anonymous User]

Fuck any firm that's splitting this payment June / December that's ridiculous. I'd take the June payment and then hop somewhere that's doing the "regular" April / September schedule on the condition I get that too. Not sure what Skadden was thinking. I can't emphasize enough how hard up we are for laterals; I'm at a V10 and our practice groups are dying for more people.

[Anonymous User]

ugh yea, this definitely feels like penny-pinching on skadden's part. the firm's been killing it, esp with all the SPAC work, so I dunno who thought it would be a good idea to get cute with the payout dates.

[Anonymous User]

It’s like Skadden had to emphasize that they’re doing this begrudgingly and they don’t think you deserve any more money

[Anonymous User]

I accepted an offer at v10 with signing bonus of $50+ and full annual bonus and currently in the process of going through conflicts and not really sure how the timing will work out for me to get those $$ at my new firm..

[Anonymous User]

Accidental post

[Anonymous User]

accidental post

[Anonymous User]

Law Firms need to start giving Apollo level bonuses if they want people to stay

https://www.businessinsider.com/apollo- ... apo-2021-3

[Anonymous User]

Yeah the not-so-secret is that firms that specialize in tech like Fenwick & WSGR are absolutely killing it AND they actually have a pipeline to desirable in-house positions at cool tech companies.

(Let's just say no one dreams of being a big law attorney, let alone moving in-house to some random F500 company/financial institution that's been treading water for decades aka the typical NYC big law client)

I think it's equally sad that people dream of working at Facebook, Twitter, Uber, Google, and a great deal of other tech companies that mostly pollute our society with garbage, exploit workers, create products for the "haves," etc. Let's be real. Tech is "desirable" because tech is "sexy" and people love prefffffftige, not because it's actually meaningfully better than any of those random F500s "treading water."

Tech is desirable not just because it's "sexy," there is way more in the way of potential monetary upside of joining a high growth private startup versus your random F500 when taking into account private company stock options. In-house lawyers at Snowflake probably made between $20-200mm in the IPO earlier this year, I'm sure even their in-house paralegals are even holding multiple millions of dollars of stock at this point.

Lol at those numbers. Non c-suite employees at even very successful startups will be lucky to see very low seven figures in an IPO after dilution. Maybe the GC made a few million but no, regular Corp counsel was not getting that.

Snowflake is an outlier IPO (biggest software IPO ever), but former co-worker who is corporate counsel there (6 years out of law school) held stock worth $55 million at peak of SNOW stock price, probably closer to $35 million now. And she'd only been there for 2 years or so. Don't think $100m is out of the realm of possibility for CLO/GC, given that their CFO who had only been there 2 years pre-IPO is holding stock worth $1 billion at this point (ownership is in the S-1).

[Anonymous User]

Law Firms need to start giving Apollo level bonuses if they want people to stay

https://www.businessinsider.com/apollo- ... apo-2021-3

Hopefully without their hours. Apollo's bonuses can't even get their own people to stay.

[Anonymous User]

Law Firms need to start giving Apollo level bonuses if they want people to stay

https://www.businessinsider.com/apollo- ... apo-2021-3

Hopefully without their hours. Apollo's bonuses can't even get their own people to stay.

I suspect that the work environment at Apollo makes biglaw seem like summer camp.

Any rumblings in the big DC firms? Does it seem likely that they'll follow the typical pattern of dragging their heels but eventually matching?

[Anonymous User]

June, I get from a retention perspective. An April bonus doesn’t really serve a purpose of keeping people around other than maybe some people already with offers in hand. But December? That’s cheap.

Will be interesting to see where the rest of the V20 lands in terms of timing. Seems pretty certain that they’ll all pay at some point, by now.

[Anonymous User]

PW matched, with June and September payouts.

[lolwutpar]

Ew Paul, Weiss.

I have an annuity but I need cash now!

[Anonymous User]

It’s like Skadden had to emphasize that they’re doing this begrudgingly and they don’t think you deserve any more money

I'm at Kirkland. It sounds like a few other people in this thread are too. I can attest that we're actively seeking laterals. Anyone from Skadden or any other V10/V25 firm that you feel is being chintzy, send your resume over. We're also apparently paying out generous signing bonuses (50k-100k).

[Anonymous User]

It’s like Skadden had to emphasize that they’re doing this begrudgingly and they don’t think you deserve any more money

I'm at Kirkland. It sounds like a few other people in this thread are too. I can attest that we're actively seeking laterals. Anyone from Skadden or any other V10/V25 firm that you feel is being chintzy, send your resume over. We're also apparently paying out generous signing bonuses (50k-100k).

Doubt KE will match

[Anonymous User]

It’s like Skadden had to emphasize that they’re doing this begrudgingly and they don’t think you deserve any more money

I'm at Kirkland. It sounds like a few other people in this thread are too. I can attest that we're actively seeking laterals. Anyone from Skadden or any other V10/V25 firm that you feel is being chintzy, send your resume over. We're also apparently paying out generous signing bonuses (50k-100k).

Doubt KE will match

I think there's 0% chance they *won't* match; it would be a disaster for them to do not do so and they're flush with cash. Not sure where your reasoning is coming from.

[ExpOriental]

It’s like Skadden had to emphasize that they’re doing this begrudgingly and they don’t think you deserve any more money

I'm at Kirkland. It sounds like a few other people in this thread are too. I can attest that we're actively seeking laterals. Anyone from Skadden or any other V10/V25 firm that you feel is being chintzy, send your resume over. We're also apparently paying out generous signing bonuses (50k-100k).

Doubt KE will match

I would love to hear what bizarro logic led you to that conclusion

[MarcusH]

It’s like Skadden had to emphasize that they’re doing this begrudgingly and they don’t think you deserve any more money

I'm at Kirkland. It sounds like a few other people in this thread are too. I can attest that we're actively seeking laterals. Anyone from Skadden or any other V10/V25 firm that you feel is being chintzy, send your resume over. We're also apparently paying out generous signing bonuses (50k-100k).

Doubt KE will match

I would love to hear what bizarro logic led you to that conclusion

I assume the poster means that KE won't pay until year-end and that the multiple won't be calculated based on the special bonus amount, which doesn't seem that crazy considering what KE did for the fall bonuses, right? I'm not at KE, so would like to hear the perspective of any current KE folks, as much as I hate that every single thread on this site is now a costco kool aid thread... but if you can't beat em, join em...

[Anonymous User]

It’s like Skadden had to emphasize that they’re doing this begrudgingly and they don’t think you deserve any more money

I'm at Kirkland. It sounds like a few other people in this thread are too. I can attest that we're actively seeking laterals. Anyone from Skadden or any other V10/V25 firm that you feel is being chintzy, send your resume over. We're also apparently paying out generous signing bonuses (50k-100k).

Doubt KE will match

I would love to hear what bizarro logic led you to that conclusion

I assume the poster means that KE won't pay until year-end and that the multiple won't be calculated based on the special bonus amount, which doesn't seem that crazy considering what KE did for the fall bonuses, right? I'm not at KE, so would like to hear the perspective of any current KE folks, as much as I hate that every single thread on this site is now a costco kool aid thread... but if you can't beat em, join em...

I'm the above KE guy. I think there's 0 chance they push this to December. It was one thing to say in October / November "wait a month." But they'd be breaking industry trend here and we are trying to attract more attorneys, not get people to quit / leave. People would riot especially in the corp groups given how bad hours are right now.

[Anonymous User]

Debevoise match. June & September.

[Anonymous User]

Debevoise match. June & September.

Cleary match DPW. April 30 and August 30.

[MarcusH]

It’s like Skadden had to emphasize that they’re doing this begrudgingly and they don’t think you deserve any more money

I'm at Kirkland. It sounds like a few other people in this thread are too. I can attest that we're actively seeking laterals. Anyone from Skadden or any other V10/V25 firm that you feel is being chintzy, send your resume over. We're also apparently paying out generous signing bonuses (50k-100k).

Doubt KE will match

I would love to hear what bizarro logic led you to that conclusion

I assume the poster means that KE won't pay until year-end and that the multiple won't be calculated based on the special bonus amount, which doesn't seem that crazy considering what KE did for the fall bonuses, right? I'm not at KE, so would like to hear the perspective of any current KE folks, as much as I hate that every single thread on this site is now a costco kool aid thread... but if you can't beat em, join em...

I'm the above KE guy. I think there's 0 chance they push this to December. It was one thing to say in October / November "wait a month." But they'd be breaking industry trend here and we are trying to attract more attorneys, not get people to quit / leave. People would riot especially in the corp groups given how bad hours are right now.

For the sake of the KE NSP I'm opposite against on too many different matters, I hope you're right. For my own sake, for any potential trickle down effect or at least to stir the pot and make things more interesting, I hope you're right too.

[Anonymous User]

Debevoise match. June & September.

Cleary match DPW. April 30 and August 30.

Debevoise match. June & September.

PW matched, with June and September payouts.

Are there any requirements to these?