Top Biglaw Firm Hops Aboard The Bonus Train -- With More Money For Associates Outside New York
This sure is an interesting stop on the bonus tracks.
Choo-choo! Bonus season keeps chugging along, with match after match after match after match, and the only differentiation being that big billers are raking in bigger bucks at some firms. With the latest match, it looks like we’re finally seeing something interesting. What could it be? More money for associates outside of New York!
Mayer Brown — a top-ranked Chicago-based firm that took home $1,840,000,000 gross revenue in 2021 — is offering a Baker/Cravath match for its associates in New York. Here’s what that looks like at the firm:
For associates outside of New York, however, there’s more money on the table. This is what the bonus grid looks like for associates in the firm’s other offices:
Why extend the extra cash to markets outside of New York? “With the tiered approach, the firm is a leader in associate compensation,” says one of our sources. That could certainly be a reason for doing something like this. But, as one recruiter recently suggested, supplemental bonuses are a prize for just a few, based on the fact that hours have been much lower across the board in 2022. Even still, we bet that hardworking associates in New York, even if just a handful of them, would have loved to receive the extra love from the firm in the form of more bonus money.
Congratulations on your bonuses, Mayer Brown associates — especially those in other markets who billed extra hard over the course of 2022!
(Flip to the next page to see both memos from Mayer Brown.)
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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.
