// Almost one month has passed since Milbank first announced its new salary scale. While boutique firms have been matching (and sometimes exceeding) that compensation scheme, Biglaw firms have been a bit slow to adopt it.

Last week, we discovered that some firms — like Cooley — were quietly showing associates the money under cover of their annual review process. Lo and behold, the firm has now officially announced a Milbank match, along with the announcement of its bonuses.

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Here are the firm’s 2021 year-end bonus and special bonus scales, which are both Cravath/Davis Polk market matches:

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Associates who made contributions at a level above and beyond that expected of their class year (including performance, productivity, and contributions to firm culture) received amounts in excess of the bonuses listed here. One happy associate notes, “I billed 2200 hours and got 30% above market for the discretionary year-end bonus component. I assume it may have been similar for other associates. That was pretty generous and unexpected above market.”

And here’s the firm’s official new salary scale, which, as we previously reported, is a Milbank match. Check it out:

Congratulations to everyone at Cooley!

(Flip to the next page to read the full memo from Cooley.)

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Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of this stuff. 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’ll 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.

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.

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2022 Associate Salary Increase, Associate Bonus Watch 2021, Biglaw, Bonus News Alerts, Bonuses, Cooley, Money