Is this it?
Bonus season may seem long gone by now, but some Biglaw firms are still handing them out to their eager associates. Good things usually come to those who wait, but unfortunately for associates at this firm, their bonuses are well below market.
Fox Rothschild — a firm that brought in $668,015,000 gross revenue in 2022, putting it at No. 71 in the most recent Am Law 100 — recently announced bonuses for associates, and according to Above the Law’s sources, they’re “awful.”
Just how “awful” are we talking? As noted by insiders at the firm, Fox Rothschild isn’t just off market when it comes to salaries (which range from $160,000 to $260,000 depending on office; NALP lists the firm’s first-year salaries at $195,000). Sources say that the firm’s hours-based bonuses are “well behind competitors.”
As a reminder, this is what the prevailing Milbank/Cravath bonus scale looks like:
- Class of 2023 – $15,000
- Class of 2022 – $20,000
- Class of 2021 – $30,000
- Class of 2020 – $57,500
- Class of 2019 – $75,000
- Class of 2018 – $90,000
- Class of 2017 – $105,000
- Class of 2016+ – $115,000
Keeping these numbers in mind, this is what the hours-based bonus scale looks like at Fox Rothschild.
It looks like the only associates who come out ahead on their bonus compensation are first-years who billed 2025 hours or more, second-years who billed 2100 hours or more, and third-years who billed 2275 hours or more.
Fox Rothschild is often regarded as a work-life balance firm, which is definitely appreciated, but now associates know just how much money is being left off the table for that “balance” — which has associates billing more than their colleagues at other firms to earn less in bonus money.
Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of compensation updates, so when your firm announces or matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus/Matches”). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.
And if you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Bonus Alerts (which is the alert list we also use for salary announcements), please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the bonus alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each bonus announcement that we publish. Thanks for your help!
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 and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.
