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Smashing The Biglaw Bonus Scale

Everyone likes a good bonus announcement, but what we really love is a bonus announcement that goes over the top of the market scale. Cue the good folks at litigation powerhouse, Susman Godfrey.

Susman has a history giving out massive bonuses. 2019 has brought another year of big bonuses at the firm. But they didn’t just repeat the big bonuses from last year, they actually added to them.

So, enough talking, here are the big numbers:

More than 20 percent of Susman Godfrey associates will have total compensation of at least $500,000 for 2019. For purposes of comparison of Susman Godfrey’s bonuses to those of law firms that base bonuses on law school graduation year, here are the median bonuses for Susman Godfrey associates by graduation year:

  • 2011 or earlier: $235,000
  • 2012: $200,000
  • 2013: $180,000
  • 2014: $160,000
  • 2015: $130,000
  • 2016: $120,000
  • 2017: $115,000

For the sake of comparison, the standard market bonus for the Class of 2017 is $25,000, meaning Susman is giving associates $90,000 more. That’s a pretty nice payday.

You can read the full announcement on the next page.

Remember — we can’t do this without you, dear readers! 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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headshotKathryn 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).