Bonus Season Has Started, But Where Are The Bonuses? Come On, Cravath!
Stop keeping everyone waiting.
(Image via Getty)
Baker McKenzie decided to kick off the 2020 bonus season bright and early on Wednesday morning, announcing the $15K to $100K scale that we’ve seen for years now (while promising to match any increases in the market, should they occur). Thus far, the firm’s announcement has been more or less ignored.
Before you start wondering what the other firms could possibly be waiting for before making their matches, you should know that we’ve seen this before.
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Last year, Milbank made the first move when it came to announcing year-end bonuses, and for five days, partners on Biglaw executive committees sat twiddling their thumbs until Cravath came forward to announce that it was matching the Milbank bonus scale. Only then did matches occur — and at a rapid pace, at that.
Cravath’s seal of approval may be what’s needed here, but let’s face it: we’re dealing with a pandemic and there are already different tiers of compensation across Biglaw.
“This year we see much more of a fragmented system with different firms doing different things,” said Nathan Peart, managing director of Major, Lindsey & Africa’s associate practice group, in an interview with Am Law. If you recall, while some firms adopted special fall bonuses on the Davis Polk scale, others decided either to commit to matching them when year-end bonus time came around or forgo them entirely.
Peart adds that the rest of the market could also be waiting for historical bonus leaders like Cravath or Milbank to make a move before jumping into the fray—a possibility Baker McKenzie seems to have hedged for, by telling its associates that the firm will match any increase to the scale.
“The market does look to the likes of Cravath and Milbank to make that market leap,” Peart said. “I don’t think Baker wants to set a figure and not have any flexibility if the market goes higher. I think it was prudent to do that … It makes sense to say ‘we’re going to match don’t worry about that.’ The psychology is very important internally for the firm.”
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It looks like we’re going to have to wait impatiently for Cravath to make its move on bonuses, but for the time being, at least associates know what the bottom of the 2020 bonus market looks like. It’s just a matter of when your firm will match or beat it.
Baker McKenzie Bonuses Met With Crickets, but Likely Not for Long [American Lawyer]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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