No. 2 Biglaw Firm In America Finally Announces Market-Beating Bonuses
That's a lot of money! (But it was even more money last year.)
Good things come with patience, and if you’re an associate at Latham who was waiting for a bonus, your patience has been rewarded with pretty good things.
Latham & Watkins — a firm that brought in $5,488,778,000 gross revenue in 2021, placing it at No. 2 in the most recent Am Law 100 ranking — is known for announcing its year-end bonuses in January, and they usually beat the going market rate. Today, the firm finally announced its bonuses, and even though associates had to wait for the cash, they’re probably pretty happy about what’s getting deposited into their bank accounts.
Bonuses at Latham come with a billable requirement of 1900 hours, but they also give extra money for those who are billing above that threshold. And, from the looks of it, Latham associates have been busy — but perhaps not as busy as they were last year. The base bonuses are at market levels, but the median bonuses for every class year (sometimes just barely) beat the market rate. And the top bonuses are way, way over what the market gives out.
The firm circulated the below chart internally, and you can get a sense of just how generous bonuses are at Latham (full memo on the next page):
(It’s worth mentioning that last year, top bonuses at Latham were a bit higher than the 2022 bonuses the firm is offering. For the 2021 bonus cycle, the top bonus for first-years was $32,000, while the top bonus for seventh-years was $184,000. Take from that what you will about the available hours associates at the firm were able to bill.)
Bonus-eligible associates at the firm will receive their payouts on January 31. Congratulations to everyone at the firm!
(Flip to the next page to see the memo from Latham & Watkins.)
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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.
