Considering the fact that many firms conducted salary cuts due to COVID-19, Biglaw’s 2020 bonus season numbers were actually quite generous. This year’s bonus haul consisted of traditional year-end bonuses coupled with special bonuses that were given to associates in appreciation of their hard work during the pandemic. Firms that didn’t hand out both bonuses were considered below market, which is not a great place to be — but that’s where this Am Law 200 firm reportedly finds itself.
Stroock & Stroock & Lavan — a firm that brought in $258,000,000 in gross revenue in 2019, placing it at #122 on the most recent Am Law ranking — slashed salaries in June, but gave attorneys the opportunity to recoup lost pay through their annualized billable hours. We recently learned that Stroock handed out bonuses just before the holidays, but associates aren’t exactly thrilled.
The firm doesn’t send out bonus memos, but instead calls associates individually. Here’s what our sources say about 2020’s bonuses at Stroock:
Associates were given the standard end-of-year bonus scale as in past years but were NOT given a special “COVID” bonus – neither in the fall nor at the end of the year. This is extremely troubling as Stroock has always been a “market rate” firm, yet now gives sub-market-rate bonuses while less prestigious firms with lower payscales and much lower profits per partner are awarding special bonuses.
Morale at the firm is at an all-time low. All this while the firm touts how busy our Financial Restructuring practice has been right on the front page of the website. It seems from all firm communications that 2020 was a great year financially for the firm despite COVID, so to make less than my peers at firms that have struggled is anything but fair.
Ooof, sorry about that, Stroockies.
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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.