These Biglaw Bonuses Are For The Birds!
Get it? Look, I'm trying to make these fun.
For folks at Alston & Bird! See what we did there? The bonuses actually match the market, but “Bird” is in the firm’s name so we playfully wrote “for the birds!” making it sound like they’re bad, but they aren’t. Oh, we are so self-satisfied with our little bonus stories.
Yeah.
There’s not much more to be said about Biglaw bonuses that match the market. At this point it’s just a temperature check to make sure the firm is not sitting on a layoff announcement. And even that may not be true anymore because Goodwin just laid people off and then issued solid bonuses anyway.
So here’s where Alston & Bird landed for associates meeting the 2000-hour billable minimum.
| Class | Bonus |
| Class of 2022 | $15K |
| Class of 2021 | $20K |
| Class of 2020 | $30K |
| Class of 2019 | $57.5K |
| Class of 2018 | $75K |
| Class of 2017 | $90K |
| Class of 2016 | $105K |
| Class of 2015+ | $115K |
The firm also approved a 10% surbonus for those topping 2200 hours and 20% more for those over 2400 hours.
Bonuses will be paid out in March, so anyone eyeing a lateral move is stuck there until then… which could well rob them of a quarter of their 2023 bonus at a future home. Golden handcuffs and all that.
In any event, congratulations!
Memo on the next page.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
