If you’ve got to wait until January to learn about your bonus, the least the firm can do is toss you a little extra to make it worth the wait.
Latham & Watkins is a January bonus player who understands the pain of waiting while your peers at other firms celebrate holiday bonuses. So again this year, Latham is offering a sliding scale of bonuses that top the market base for most associates.
Here are the median and top bonuses by class year announced in the Latham memo. Bonus payments kick in at a 1900-hour minimum:
Comparing these numbers to last year, there’s definitely a bump for the big revenue firm. Taking the median bonuses of each year:
| 2019 Median | 2020 Median | |
| 1st | $15,000 | $15,000 |
| 2nd | $25,000 | $25,875 |
| 3rd | $52,500 | $53,000 |
| 4th | $68,500 | $71,500 |
| 5th | $85,000 | $88,500 |
| 6th | $97,500 | $100,000 |
| 7th | $107,500 | $116,000 |
Last year, the table included one more class year at $110,000. They appear to be sucked up into the 7th year plus class this time around. Otherwise, the firm is showing off another strong year of growth.
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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.