The law firm of Kasowitz Benson has announced that it issued bonuses to its employees recently. The announced within the firm came last Thursday. The firm is focuses on litigation, calling itself a powerhouse, “a national law firm primarily focusing on complex and sophisticated commercial litigation, numbering 375 lawyers.”
The bonus memo issued by Kasowitz announced bonuses for associates working in New York and for special counsel that are ‘up to’ the Cravath bonus scale that was set back in December. The memo notes that numbers on its scale, “are benchmark amounts which are subject to adjustment to reflect individual performance and hours worked.” During the week of January 23, individual bonuses will be communicated by the firm to its employees.
The firm has been doing well of late, expanding and thriving a good amount, so some might find these bonuses disappointing. If you want to look into the ‘up to’ part of the memo, it pretty much means that there are some associates who will make less than the Cravath scale and others who will make no more than the Cravath scale when their bonuses are issued.
The memo also does not mention any spring bonuses for associates at the firm. But, in all fairness, not many other memos from other firms mention spring bonuses either. The majority of those firms did pay spring bonuses in 2011 though and Kasowitz did not. The failure to issue spring bonuses caused some dissention amongst the workers, especially those who left elite firms that pay spring bonuses to join Kasowitz.
