Bonus seasons continues to make its way through Biglaw. And, generally speaking, that’s good news for the associates on the ground busy billing their butts off during a pandemic. And though the prevailing market rate has been set, we’re still waiting to see exactly who will match.
Well, the wait is over for associates at Linklaters. The firm announced they’ll be paying market year-end bonuses. That’s good news, but as Biglaw followers know, in 2020, that’s not the end of the discussion. Special bonuses are also a thing this year, generally ranging from $7,500 to $40,000 depending on class year as an extra special thank you for working through a challenging year. And Linklaters says there’ll be special bonuses starting at 1,700 billable hours, but there’s no clear chart delineating exactly how much you need to bill to get full market special bonuses.
And reaction from tipsters has called out this lack of transparency:
After taking two weeks longer than any of their “magic circle” peers, they didn’t even match. They added a scaled hours requirement that no one can make sense of. From talking to people it sounds like you needed to hit 1,900 to even get a quarter of the special bonus, so who knows what anyone billing 1,700 – 1,900 got. And 2,000 gets you half if you’re lucky.
Instead of thanking people for working during a pandemic, it’s a late Christmas slap in the face. No one is happy and it shows just how littleLinklaters thinks of its US practice
Of course any bonuses are better than no bonuses, but it isn’t surprising associates wish there were a bit more clarity.
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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).