Successful Biglaw firms continue to match the Cravath scale for raises and bonuses left and right, with associates gushing with excitement over the news. Thus far, there have been few firms that have come over the top to offer year-end bonuses that really wow their associates, but that ends today.
This morning, Boies Schiller Flexner — a firm that brought in $220,000,000 gross revenue in 2022, putting it at No. 157 in the most recent Am Law 200 — announced that it would be matching the Cravath scale for compensation increases, meaning that these are the salaries associates at the firm will see, as of January 1, 2024:
- Class of 2023 – $225,000
- Class of 2022 – $235,000
- Class of 2021 – $260,000
- Class of 2020 – $310,000
- Class of 2019 – $365,000
- Class of 2018 – $390,000
- Class of 2017 – $420,000
- Class of 2016+ – $435,000
As far as bonuses are concerned, at Boies Schiller, associates have the option of doing the market bonus system, which will get them the Cravath scale — which ranges from $15,000 to $115,000 — or they can opt into the firm’s formula compensation system, which includes a revenue share component that affords associates a cut of the matters they work on, which for contingency work can be massive.
This is what the firm noted about their formula bonuses this year:
[A]ssociates on Formula Compensation in general did very well this year. Here are some figures that may be of interest:
- The prevailing market bonus scale ranges from $15,000 (for class of 2023, prorated) to $115,000 (for class of 2016 and above).*
- 87% of associates received a bonus that was as least as high as, and in most cases higher than, what that associate would have earned under the market system. (Those that did not typically invested material time in a contingency case that has not yet paid out.)
- Nearly half (47%) of all associates who were with the Firm for the entire compensation year received a bonus at or above the very top of the market, i.e., above $115,000. But whereas that bonus level is only available to very senior associates under the market system, many Boies Schiller associates earning bonuses at or about $115,000 were very junior, including more than a third (36%) of eligible associates from the 2021 and 2022 class years.
- Several associates received bonuses of $300,000 or more.
- The top associate bonus this year was more than 13 times what that associate would have earned under the market system.
- Overall, the associates bonus pool was more than twice as large as it would have been had all associates been on the market system.
Wow! Almost half of BSF associates on the formula bonus system are taking home bonuses reserved for the most senior associates at other Biglaw firms. In fact, there are some associates at BSF who are taking home bonuses as large as some of their colleagues’ salaries. This seems like a bonus system that associates would love.
“The firm needs to get recognition for being the amazing place that it is,” one BSF associate told us. “There is legitimately no firm I’d rather work at,” said another associate at the firm. “For me, it’s the quality of the work/early experience, the professional respect associates are shown on a daily basis, and the materially above-market pay.”
Not to be outdone, Boies Schiller is still going forward with its “extraordinary” and “extra-extraordinary” bonuses for those on the Cravath market bonus system. For those associates, billing 2000 hours will get them a standard bonus, while billing 2350 and 2600 hours will get them some massive payouts compared to the market scale. Just last year, “extraordinary” bonuses ranged from $30K-$150K, while “extra-extraordinary” bonuses ran from $40K-$165K.
Congratulations to everyone at Boies Schiller!
(Flip to the next page to read the full memo from the firm.)
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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 and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.
