EOY Bonuses Forum

[Anonymous User]

I for one welcome our new Baker overlords

[Anonymous User]

I for one welcome our new Baker overlords

Amlaw > Vault, obviously.

[Anonymous User]

I can't wrap my head around partnerships being okay with all-in compensation for 2021 being higher than all-in compensation for 2022 (in a 10% inflation environment). I think (someone else can do the calc or I'll do it when I have more time) that just salary + end of year bonus (so, excluding the mid-year special bonuses) for 2021 outpaces total compensation for 2022 for some class years. I really thought DPW would come out with a modest scale increase, even if only to acknowledge that no special bonuses were paid this year and inflation has been running wild. Paying people less year n+1 vs year n is going to have a demoralizing effect however you spin it.

[Anonymous User]

I can't wrap my head around partnerships being okay with all-in compensation for 2021 being higher than all-in compensation for 2022 (in a 10% inflation environment). I think (someone else can do the calc or I'll do it when I have more time) that just salary + end of year bonus (so, excluding the mid-year special bonuses) for 2021 outpaces total compensation for 2022 for some class years. I really thought DPW would come out with a modest scale increase, even if only to acknowledge that no special bonuses were paid this year and inflation has been running wild. Paying people less year n+1 vs year n is going to have a demoralizing effect however you spin it.

Yes, but the partnerships are counting on less attrition and lateraling this year from juniors and mids. Firms don’t pay more in n+1 unless there’s a risk that they’ll lose so many bodies that they can’t staff matters. Basically, firms are structured to lose senior attorneys who won’t make more year on year. That’s why being a partner is attractive. Get to earn more each year. But salaries in law stagnated for years in the 2010s. Firms didn’t care then. Don’t see why they will now either.

[DukeMountain]

Expecting another 10 years of stagnation as partners assume no raise is the norm after 1 year

[Anonymous User]

What the fuck is the deal with Above the Law? Their story on Paul Weiss matching makes it sound like a PW match is a huge win, and congratulates PW associates on the match. At best, a PW match was a foregone conclusion. But in past years ATL would sprinkle in some disappointment when a firm didn't go over the top.

[Monochromatic Oeuvre]

I can't wrap my head around partnerships being okay with all-in compensation for 2021 being higher than all-in compensation for 2022 (in a 10% inflation environment).

The partners are okay if you die, so…they’re okay if your comp decreases.

They pay exactly what they think they have to in order to keep enough people around. In this environment, that’s a lower number.

[Anonymous User]

Milbank match.

See y'all in 2023.

[Anonymous User]

What the fuck is the deal with Above the Law? Their story on Paul Weiss matching makes it sound like a PW match is a huge win, and congratulates PW associates on the match. At best, a PW match was a foregone conclusion. But in past years ATL would sprinkle in some disappointment when a firm didn't go over the top.

I really think they don't know what the fuck is going on anymore. It's gotten progressively worse every year since Lat left. If you read their "news" pieces carefully you realize that they're essentially acting as a content aggregator at this point--there is very little informed opinion, inside information, just plain thought regarding the industry and especially biglaw; they take their stories from other primary source sites, offer a paragraph or two of inane reaction to it, and hit "Publish." When Lat was running things it felt like "one of us" in the biglaw / clerkship / preftige milieu had gotten a legal industry news platform but those days are gone.

[Anonymous User]

How much were the discretionary bonuses paid by Paul Weiss?

[Anonymous User]

Milbank match.

See y'all in 2023.

Unbelievable. Baker has set a scale that Cravath, DPW, and Milbank have followed.

[Anonymous User]

What are the chances we see a comp bump or spring bonuses in 2023?

[Anonymous User]

I could see Milbank doing a salary inflation raise, focused on mids/seniors. NY to 225.

[Anonymous User]

What are the chances we see a comp bump or spring bonuses in 2023?

The chance of base salary being bumped up in 2023 is probably 0 (not saying that it will be another decade of no base raise like 2007-2016, but I would be shocked if base is raised in the next 2 years). Spring bonus is probably only happening if inflation/recession fears ease and the lateral/in-house market heats up again.

[Anonymous User]

I could see Milbank doing a salary inflation raise, focused on mids/seniors. NY to 225.

They just told us to go suck **** and enjoy working for less in a high inflation environment. I don’t think that’s happening, but happy to be proven wrong.

[Anonymous User]

Next stop salary decreases.

[Anonymous User]

Ropes announced the same scale and stated that bonuses will be reduced if under 1900

[Anonymous User]

Pretty ironic this all comes out on the day of record-low unemployment and big increases in nominal wages.

[Anonymous User]

Guarantee PPP increases outstrip inflation for 2022.

[Anonymous User]

I could see Milbank doing a salary inflation raise, focused on mids/seniors. NY to 225.

They just told us to go suck **** and enjoy working for less in a high inflation environment. I don’t think that’s happening, but happy to be proven wrong.

They really did just tell us all to go fuck ourselves, didn't they lol

[Anonymous User]

As a c/o 2016 associate, it's amazing to think about when I started, what the midlevels were like (paranoid-ish) and the seniors were like (just super cocksuckingly happy to have a job and lick boots), where no one expect any changes to bonus or base salary at any given time. Compared to now where the midlevels and juniors are like "ah thats lame just means we will get a raise next year i hope" lmao

[Anonymous User]

As a c/o 2016 associate, it's amazing to think about when I started, what the midlevels were like (paranoid-ish) and the seniors were like (just super cocksuckingly happy to have a job and lick boots), where no one expect any changes to bonus or base salary at any given time. Compared to now where the midlevels and juniors are like "ah thats lame just means we will get a raise next year i hope" lmao

Nice.

[Anonymous User]

As a c/o 2016 associate, it's amazing to think about when I started, what the midlevels were like (paranoid-ish) and the seniors were like (just super cocksuckingly happy to have a job and lick boots), where no one expect any changes to bonus or base salary at any given time. Compared to now where the midlevels and juniors are like "ah thats lame just means we will get a raise next year i hope" lmao

This is so true. The senior associates would tell stories of surviving the 2008-2010 period and hope the bonus scale would get back to 2007 levels. Summers and juniors were all like damn $160k is sick. But people also chatted in the office all day and the typical day ended between 8-9pm so it just wasn’t anywhere as intense in my experience as the 2021 deal boom.

[Anonymous User]

Ropes announced the same scale and stated that bonuses will be reduced if under 1900

This is standard. As are the bonus multipliers for each hundred hour tier 2100 and above.

[Anonymous User]

Ropes announced the same scale and stated that bonuses will be reduced if under 1900

This is standard. As are the bonus multipliers for each hundred hour tier 2100 and above.

So they just suck every year, while pretending to be peers with firms that have no requirement? Got it.