Above Market Biglaw Bonuses Wow For Mid-Level And Senior Associates While Some Associates Feel Slighted

Junior associates get market bonuses which feels a bit like participation trophies at this point.

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The good news is that the Biglaw firm of Cahill Gordon has announced their annual bonus structure. This year, that includes both year-end and special bonuses, and everyone in good standing should receive at least the market rate in bonus money.

But there’s still some discontentment at the firm. Well, at least with some of the associates.

You see, in the firm’s announcement (available in full on the next page), they note, “The special bonus structure recognizes the particularly exceptional effort and performance of our mid-level and senior associate classes, as well as generally challenging circumstances.” And here’s the scale:

So, yeah it looks like mid-level and senior associates have a real opportunity to make a lot more than just the market bonuses — up to $60,000 more for the most senior attorneys on the grid. But even though juniors are as well off as their peers at other firms, it still stings. Above the Law has received word from bunches of tipsters expressing their disappointment and anger over the bonus announcment:

I guess the partners are sending a clear message to the juniors. Our efforts are not particularly exceptional. We have not endured the same challenging circumstances as mid-levels and seniors during these times. I’m embarrassed at all of the hard work I put in this year in my CHALLENGING CIRCUMSTANCES. This email was pretty rude.

did they need to include the message about appreciating the work of their mid-level and senior associates? Seems very demoralizing for the junior associates to know that the firm doesn’t value them and won’t compensate them according to normal Cahill expectations.

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2016 and up doing well, the Junior classes are extremely disappointed (cahill used to be a market leader)

Let’s just say there were mixed feelings.

Indeed.

It seems the firm has put a real premium on the work that mid-level and senior associates do — similar to how, in the great salary raise of 2018, Cravath matched the raises for junior associates but came over the top for their more experienced attorneys. And there’s a kind of logic to it, since the more experienced associates are a scarcer resource, with fewer of them still around firms as in-house or other non-Biglaw opportunities become available to them. And yet, there has to be a less gauche way to express that sentiment that doesn’t make juniors feel like chopped liver. But, who said Biglaw was known for being nice?

As always, we depend on you when it comes to bonus news. As soon as your firm’s bonus memo comes out, please email it to us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus”) or text us (646-820-8477). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.

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headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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