JD Journal » associate bonus

Goodwin Procter Pays Bonuses, Thaws Salaries

joshua — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:46:00 +0000

Goodwin Procter is paying 2009 bonuses to its associates who hit their billable hour goal of 1850 hours, maybe. Bonuses will more or less match the Cravath bonus scale, maybe. If the firm feels like it. Associates that billed 1850 hours will be considered for, but not guaranteed a bonus, and the firm provided a nice chart showing Cravath-like bonuses but said that actual bonus amounts will be based on other factors.

The firm also told its associates that it was abandoning lockstep compensation, maybe. But not this year. Although the firm has (apparently) hated lockstep for years, this year it will study the issue holistically. In the mean time one thing is for certain, Goodwin Procter is thawing out salaries. It’s not a true up – associates are only being bumped up one year, but it’s a far cry better than the firms using merit based compensation to mask a pay cut.

Goodwin Procter LLP employs 900 attorneys in Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, Silicon Valley, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington DC.

Salary Thaw and Bonuses at Hogan & Hartson

joshua — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:06:15 +0000

First a little background: Hogan & Hartson pays associates on a two tier system, where associates can choose to receive higher base salary but with a higher billable hours requirement, or take a lower base salary with lower expectations. This year, salaries were frozen at 2008 levels and in the spring, Hogan & Hartson arbitrarily moved any associate not on track to make the higher billable hour total down to the lower track, paying them the less lucrative salary, but with the promise to restore the money if they caught up.

Today Hogan & Hartson passed out three nice bits of news. First, salaries are being unfrozen and all associates will advance one year in 2010, although the frozen year will not be restored. Second, anyone that was bumped down a track who meets the billable hour requirement for the upper track will receive the difference in a lump sum payment. They will also be returned to the higher track, even if they didn’t meet the hourly total for this year. Finally, bonuses have been announced. The bonuses are discretionary and require that the associate meet a billable hour target. Non billable hours above and beyond the call of duty may be credited to meet the total at the firm’s discretion.

More Bonus News – And it’s a Little Different

joshua — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:38:04 +0000

Two more firms have announced their bonus schedules and they’re a bit different from the Cravath scale.

Sullivan & Cromwell is paying bonuses ranging from $7500 to $35,000 depending on class year. The only change is at the high end where senior associates will receive $5000 more than at firms on the Cravath scale.

Patton Boggs is doing things differently. They are paying bonuses based on both class year and the number of billable hours by which an associate exceeded their target goal. The scale ranges from $5000 to $45000. You’ll note that it’s lower on the low end and higher on the high end, but more importantly it cuts out completely anyone that missed their target goal for billable hours. Given the state of the legal economy I have to wonder how many associates won’t be getting a bonus at all, and of those that do, how few are hitting that top mark.

Patton Boggs also told its associates that those that missed their billable hour target by a large enough amount would receive a salary cut. Missed by 300 hours? That’s a 10% pay cut. Missed by 500 hours? That’s a 20% pay cut. And since salaries are remaining frozen, that means a third year associate that missed by 500 hours will receive $122,000 next year while new first years get $160,000.

Davis Polk Bonuses

joshua — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:46:47 +0000

Davis Polk has announced its year end bonus schedule and, surprise!, it looks all too familiar. Yup, it matches the bonuses put out by Cravath, which match the bonuses of every biglaw firm to announce bonuses in the days after Cravath set the bar. New associates are receiving $7500, with seniors making $30,000 and everyone else sliding in the middle.

Davis Polk & Wardwell is an international law firm headquartered in New York. The firm employs more than 700 attorneys and is primarily known for its corporate, litigation and tax practices.

Bonus Season – DLA Piper Says Yes

joshua — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:57:18 +0000

We don’t know yet how much, but DLA Piper has informed its associates that there will be bonuses this year. The total bonus will be between 5 and 50 thousand, to be determined by DLA Piper in January. This, combined with a healthy 86% offer rate for this years summer associates, indicates some real optimism about the future at DLA Piper. We can only hope that it’s a harbinger of good things to come across the board.

DLA Piper is one of the largest law firms in the world. It is a legal services organization whose members and affiliates are separate and distinct legal entities. The organization boasts more than 3,500 lawyers in 29 countries and 65 offices.

K&L Gates: No Bonus So Far — And We Need Some Money Back

Erik Even — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:10:52 +0000

Above the Law hears about all the best nonsense first. For instance, K&L Gates associates have not yet heard about 2008 bonuses or 2009 raises. After all, who’d want to plan ahead or anything?

But now it seems the firm has compounded their reticence to make decisions with a royal payroll f*ckup:

Please see the email below regarding an error with the direct deposit of the January 22nd payroll. In short the issue is that your payroll appears to have been deposited 3 times and the firm is in the process of request [sic] 2 of those be returned. So, please be careful not to spend more then your normal pay until you see that they [sic] corrections have been made to your account.

On the downside, K&L uses an inept payroll company. On the upside, the firm’s cash flow must be nice and healthy if it can afford to triple pay all of its associates.

I don’t know how this kind of stupid mistake affects the associates at the world’s 10th largest law firm. But I’ve had friends who were overpaid, and then had to return the money — and it really, really screwed them financially.

Via ATL.