Even though announcements may be slower in the new year, bonus season is still in effect. We continue to live in unprecedented times, and in 2021, that translated into one of the wealthiest Biglaw firms of all keeping associates nervously waiting with bated breath until the bitter end to find out whether their year-end bonuses would match the prevailing market rate.
Morgan Lewis & Bockius came in 7th place in the most recent Am Law 100 ranking, taking home $2,446,000,000 gross revenue in 2020. This firm can certainly afford to pay out big bonuses, but beginning in mid-December, we started receiving messages from worried associates, wondering why the firm hadn’t made an announcement yet. “Any idea why Morgan Lewis hasn’t announced bonuses?” an associate asked.
As we got later into the month, associates seemed a bit perturbed. “Any word about Morgan Lewis? Associates are definitely getting frustrated.” After Christmas was over and before the new year, associates were flat-out pissed. “It’s December 27th and Morgan Lewis still hasn’t announced bonuses. Would you be so kind as to drag them?” Yikes….
Associates at Morgan Lewis can now let out a huge sigh of relief, because the powers that be at the firm finally announced its bonuses via voicemail on January 1. Happy New Year, everyone!
A source tells us that MLB has matched the Cravath/Davis Polk scale for year-end and special bonuses, and that there’s an “extraordinary bonus” being added on top for high billers who hit a certain amount of hours above 1900.
Bonus money will likely be deposited into associates’ accounts later this month.
Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of important bonus updates, so when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] 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.
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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.
