Hit billable target, but partial bonus Forum

[Anonymous User]

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[Anonymous User]

I just wanted to say thank you for outing. They are on a shortlist I was working with a recruiter for lateraling and I'm now going to cross them off without explanation.

Hoping you find something better OP.

[Anonymous User]

OP, I wanna also throw some support in your direction. I’ve been doing this job for a decade. So much of what constitutes success in this business is whether you kiss the right person’s ass. It’s sad but true.

If I were you, I would take my foot off the gas pedal and begin looking around. You won’t get booted within the next few months, and you need to start at the new place fresh and ready to go.

[AAPLTSLADIS]

Thinking out loud, I'd be trying to lateral. Doesn't sound like a good situation on many levels.

[Anonymous User]

Just lateral. It sounds like you would have good options.

If you suspect the axe is coming down, then you have to take action immediately.

This is more a matter of self-preservation rather than fucking over a shitty firm.

[Anonymous User]

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[Anonymous User]

Your class year was cut and you didn’t get market bonus when hitting your target. That’s a big F you from your firm. You should not be believing any assurances they are giving you. I would be looking actively, whether it is in your market or not. The writing is already on the wall, you’re going to be asked to leave, they are just documenting it with poor performance reviews / docking bonuses/pay so that it comes off as performance related and not because of firm economics. You probably will get the “time to leave” talk this summer and will be given a few months separation package / website time. The fact that you are still actively on deals means nothing.

[Anonymous User]

I work for another biglaw firm (not OP’s). We still have not had our year end review or received bonuses. We received a voicemail in December stating that the bonus criteria had changed but was very unclear (ie didn’t specify hours threshold or any other clear criteria). Our reviews haven’t happened yet and we haven’t received a clear date for when the review will be. I am relatively new to the firm and very unclear about what is going on/whether or not I will get a bonus and the people I work with seem equally unclear about what is going on.

[Anonymous User]

Senior associate at the same firm

Sorry to hear that OP, it’s a shitty situation and even worse that this came out of the blue. If you’re close to the partner you mentioned, I’d definitely have an honest chat. You deserve some answers. It’s even worse that you haven’t had an annual review yet. Sounds like the office managing partner doesn’t have their shit together

Two questions if you don’t mind sharing. Did they pay you a full market bonus in past years? I’d thought that overseas offices were on different bonus structures (with the possible/probable exception of London). I totally could be wrong though

Also if you don’t mind sharing, how/when did you find out about getting cut a class year? (i.e. did they refuse to credit a year that you had coming in as a lateral or did they cut it after some time at the firm)?

Hope you can take a couple days off to relax and get away (and then get some answers to your questions)

[Anonymous User]

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[Anonymous User]

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[Anonymous User]

What was the justification for cutting your class year? I’m not very familiar with that happening to a current associate as opposed to when someone laterals or comes in from a clerkship (but that could just be my ignorance).

[Anonymous User]

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[Anonymous User]

What was the justification for cutting your class year? I’m not very familiar with that happening to a current associate as opposed to when someone laterals or comes in from a clerkship (but that could just be my ignorance).

The justification was my mixed reviews which weren't apparently good enough on some criteria. At this firm, if you get a certain rating, you have to re-do a class year. I'm not familiar with this either. Never heard of anything like this happening to anybody. I'm only familiar with class year cuts in the context of practice area or market changes. The entire situation seems to be about firm politics though, the details of which I cannot discuss here.

Thanks for answering. I can’t fault you for believing the partner who said you’d get your bonus but given discretionary bonuses the class-year cut seems like a pretty big signal that the firm’s not supporting you. I wonder if this partner you’re working for is out of the loop/not really well placed in the firm? I know you’ve said you’re looking so not saying anything you don’t already know but yeah, you need to get out.

[Anonymous User]

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[Anonymous User]

Your class year was cut and you didn’t get market bonus when hitting your target. That’s a big F you from your firm. You should not be believing any assurances they are giving you. I would be looking actively, whether it is in your market or not. The writing is already on the wall, you’re going to be asked to leave, they are just documenting it with poor performance reviews / docking bonuses/pay so that it comes off as performance related and not because of firm economics. You probably will get the “time to leave” talk this summer and will be given a few months separation package / website time. The fact that you are still actively on deals means nothing.

OP here. Yes, it's a big fuck you from my firm, and I have started looking. But this partner I work for had no idea that the firm was going to screw my bonus. When he gave me my review and cut my year about two months ago, he reassured me this won't have any impact on my bonus. I was obviously worried but he kept on telling me not to worry. He even said worrying about bonus will be a waste of my own time as I will get it for sure. When I told him about what happened, he was genuinely surprised. I will discuss further during the coming week, but the point is, especially considering all my interactions with this partner, I don't think it's his intention to get rid of me. It's different from New York. I work with this just one partner and our relationship has generally been close and good. He put in efforts to make it clear to me that the class cut will be just temporary and that he will try to help me get my year back. The problem is that he doesn't seem to have much power over the firm's HR decisions including compensation. The craziest thing about this firm is that the partners in other offices with whom I never worked determine my bonus amount without discussing with the partner for whom I do all my work. Common sense tells me that when an associate just works for one partner and no one else, whether that associate should get a full market bonus should be decided by that partner with whom that associate worked throughout the year.

I’m going to be real with you because your situation is not unique.

(1) You say you only did work for one partner but had mixed reviews. That means you did work for other people too and did not do as good a job for those people as you did for your main partner.
(2) You state yourself that your partner doesn’t seem to have any power over HR’s decisions and compensation. This is accurate - he likely has zero power. If he had any, you would not have been cut a class year, you would not have been given a partial bonus and you wouldn’t be posting here. A non influential partner like him has only so much “firm capital” that they can use for things they want, and even if he says he’s going to try and save your job, it’s unlikely to happen given he hasn’t or has been unable to do so to date.
(3) HR decisions and comp decisions at almost every firm are not decided by the partners you exclusively or predominantly work for. It is almost always by an HR committee or a compensation committee and they will solely look at your hours and rating. A partner with influence could appeal the lower bonus or class cut but that clearly hasn’t happened successfully here.

I have heard of only one case where a partner really tried to save an associate’s job in similar circumstances and even then the end result was not good (just a longer transition period). All other cases (10+) I’ve heard of where someone got no or partial bonus when hitting hours because of mixed reviews or had their class year cut was followed by “the talk” within 4-6 months.

I get wanting to wait until the market recovers, but some food for thought:
(A) Why stay and do any work (or kill yourself with hours trying to get your comp back) for a firm that clearly does not VALUE you or your efforts?
(B) There are still many law firm and in house jobs on the market. If this partner is as invested in your career as he says he is, he should have a good network you can leverage for a job. Talk to him, I doubt he’ll be surprised you want to leave but if he’s as invested in your career as you say he is, he shouldn’t leak it to the firm and he should help you land on your feet.
(C) Hustle. The lateral market now is what the typical lateral market looks like when the market isn’t booming. Find a good head hunter (ask former colleagues and friends for recommendations) and work with them to find something in your market or another market you would be willing to work in.
(D) Take this as a good sign and a good turn in your career. You are leaving a firm that does not value you. Find a place that clearly values their associates (hard in big law) or their in-house counsel (less hard to find).

[Anonymous User]

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[iwishyoubestluck]

Has any of you ever heard of anyone at a billable target firm that didn't get a full market bonus despite hitting their firm's billable target?

Didn't Shearman do that this year?

At my firm you can get docked if you take too long to release your time, but everyone knows in advance if they are going to get hit by that.

Curious how much of a haircut we are talking about if you get docked for releasing time late? How much would be too much (i.e., that the firm might be using it as an excuse to do shady stuff)?

[AmericanEagleee]

At the same firm but in the U.S. I haven’t heard of this and there’s no similar rumors over here (bonus letters (FINALLY) came out and can confirm folks hitting hours got 100% of their class year bonus). Unfortunately sounds like this is either localized to non-U.S. smaller offices (e.g., not London) or is solely related to your annual review.

Regardless, sorry to hear about it and happy hunting for your next gig!

[Anonymous User]

W&C associate as well. Hit billable and didn't receive 100%. So probably not an isolated incident.

[Anonymous User]

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[Anonymous User]

OP here with an update on this. The firm paid me a tiny bit more than 50% of the market bonus at the end of February. The bonus letter that they issued in mid-February contained a dollar figure that was about 45% of the market bonus, so I had to do all I could to figure out why it's not even 50%. It turned out that the extra 5% deduction was due to an error by HR in calculating my days to release number for time entries. I pointed out the error to HR and after a week, they agreed to correct my bonus figure. I guess the HR of this firm is quite bad at simple math (but has so much power!), so I ended up getting tiny bit more than 50%. Still a lot less than what I got the year before from this same firm.

The partner I mostly work for admitted that as he was relatively new to the firm, he didn't know the link between performance reviews and bonus. He vehemently emphasized that it was never his or the firm's plan to get rid of me. I won't go into any more detail.

Anyway, I've lost my faith in the firm and will move to a better firm.

Did they justify the hit based on performance or something else? You said it was political - presumably a bunch of people would need to buy into a decision like that before it's green-lit?

[butonawednesday]

Don't leave.
Recession is a few months away.
Be thankful for what you have.

[Anonymous User]

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[Anonymous User]

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