Biglaw Firm Announces Bonuses, Delayed Raises During Salary War

// Yes, it’s 2022, and yes, there’s a new Biglaw salary scale in town that was announced by Milbank last month, but let’s not forget that some firms still haven’t announced their 2021 year-end bonuses yet.

Bracewell — a firm that brought in $295,000,000 gross revenue in 2020, ranking it at No. 113 in the most recent Am Law 200 — is one of them.

googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Enable lazy loading. googletag.pubads().enableLazyLoad({ renderMarginPercent: 150, mobileScaling: 2 }); // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-top-300x250" ); googletag.enableServices(); });

Today, the firm announced its bonuses, and even though associates had to wait for the cash, they’re probably pretty happy about their Cravath and Davis Polk matches. But what about a Milbank salary match? Ehhh… we’ll get to that.

Bonuses at Bracewell come with a billable requirement of 2000 hours, but they also give discretionary bonuses of 15% of market for those who are billing at 2200 or more hours. Check out the firm’s compensation table:

googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Enable lazy loading. googletag.pubads().enableLazyLoad({ renderMarginPercent: 150, mobileScaling: 2 }); // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-middle-300x250" ); googletag.enableServices(); }); googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Enable lazy loading. googletag.pubads().enableLazyLoad({ renderMarginPercent: 150, mobileScaling: 2 }); // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-storycontent-440x100" ); googletag.enableServices(); }); googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Enable lazy loading. googletag.pubads().enableLazyLoad({ renderMarginPercent: 150, mobileScaling: 2 }); // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-in-story-youtube-1x1" ); googletag.enableServices(); });

So, what’s going on with base salaries at Bracewell? Associates can apparently hurry up and wait. According to a source, the management committee is “monitoring market developments” like oh so many other firms, but will match whatever the prevailing salary is once the market has settled.

Congratulations to everyone on the generous bonuses, and pre-congratulations on your future Milbank (or Cravath or Davis Polk?) salary matches!

*** Wondering if the grass is greener on the in-house side? Click here for a look inside the black box of corporate counsel pay in our 2021 In-House Compensation Report. ***

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.

And if you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Bonus Alerts (which is the alert list we also use for salary announcements), please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the bonus alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each bonus announcement that we publish. Thanks for your help!

googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Enable lazy loading. googletag.pubads().enableLazyLoad({ renderMarginPercent: 150, mobileScaling: 2 }); // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-bottom-300x250" ); googletag.enableServices(); });

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.

Enter your email address to sign up for ATL's Bonus & Salary Increase Alerts. hbspt.forms.create({ css: '', portalId: '470182', formId: '918f9998-ad56-4438-b7e2-7d3c4676b70e' }); #hs-form-918f9998-ad56-4438-b7e2-7d3c4676b70e { border: 1px solid #e2e2e2; border-width: 1px 0; margin: 15px auto; padding: 15px 0; } #shs-form-918f9998-ad56-4438-b7e2-7d3c4676b70e h2 { font-size: 24px; line-height: 28px; } #hs-form-918f9998-ad56-4438-b7e2-7d3c4676b70e > p { color: #666; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0.625rem 0 1.25rem; } #shs-form-918f9998-ad56-4438-b7e2-7d3c4676b70e form { display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; align-items: flex-start; } #shs-form-918f9998-ad56-4438-b7e2-7d3c4676b70e form .hs_email label { display: none; } #hs-form-918f9998-ad56-4438-b7e2-7d3c4676b70e .hbspt-form { background: none; padding: 0; } #hs-form-918f9998-ad56-4438-b7e2-7d3c4676b70e .hbspt-form div { display: inline-block; margin: 0; padding: 0; } #hs-form-918f9998-ad56-4438-b7e2-7d3c4676b70e input[type=submit].primary { background-color: #6288a5; background-image: none; cursor: pointer; padding: 8px 20px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; } #email-918f9998-ad56-4438-b7e2-7d3c4676b70e { border-radius: 0; font-size: 22px; margin-right: 8px; padding: 5px; vertical-align: middle; width: 300px; border: 1px solid #999999; background: white; box-shadow: inset 0 1px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.15); height: 50px; outline: none; font-family: "Proxima Nova", "proxima-nova", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #666666; -moz-border-radius: 0; -o-border-radius: 0; -webkit-border-radius: 0; } Topics

Associate Bonus Watch 2021, Biglaw, Bonus News Alerts, Bonuses, Bracewell, Money