Biglaw

Special Bonuses On Top Of Regular Bonuses Are The New Norm At This Firm

This firm continues to set the bar high.

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on

Aww, all you Biglaw associates were hoping that another firm decided to beat the Cravath bonus scale. Stop being greedy little Scrooges, get into the holiday spirit, and think about your colleagues on the staff side for once.

Since bonus season kicked off at the end of November, we’ve received emails from law firm support staff wondering whether they’d receive even a pittance of the cash associates would soon see arrive in their bank accounts. After all, support staff members make law firms run, so they, too, ought to receive appropriate bonuses for their hard work.

That being the case, for the second year in a row, Weil Gotshal & Manges, one of the most prestigious firms in America, decided that all of its staff members — from human resources and business development personnel to paralegals and legal secretaries — would receive special bonuses of one week’s pay, on top of any discretionary year-end bonuses they were already due to receive.

Congratulations to Weil for setting the bar for how Biglaw firms ought to treat their administrative staff members. Here’s what one happy recipient of the firm’s special bonus had to say: “[T]oday (for the second year in a row), Weil offered a staff bonus. Happy Holidays – I’ll have one now thanks to this sweet unexpected surprise!”

Here’s the memo Weil’s admin staff received from the management committee:

Special bonuses for Weil’s staff members will be paid before the end of 2017, while year-end bonuses for associates will be paid in January 2018 — which may place staff at an advantage thanks to the new tax regime.

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That’s our take on Weil Gotshal’s special bonuses for staff. If you’re a staff member at the firm, what do you think? Feel free to let us know how you feel by email, by text message (646-820-8477), or by tweet (@ATLblog). A fun or insightful response — we’ll keep you anonymous — could find its way into an update to this story.

What is your firm doing in terms of staff bonuses this holiday season? Is it paying out two-figure, three-figure, or four-figure bonuses? Please let us know.

As a little reminder, we love covering the Biglaw bonus season, but we need your help. Remember: as soon as your firm’s bonus memo comes out, please email it to us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus”). We always keep our sources on bonus stories anonymous. There’s no need to send the memo using your firm email account; your personal email account is fine. Please be sure to include the memo as proof; we like to post complete bonus memos as a service to our readers. You can take a photo of the memo and attach as a picture if you are worried about metadata in a PDF or Word file. You can also text us at 646-820-8477. We look forward to hearing from you.

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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law 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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