Morrison & Foerster has frozen associate salaries, and revised its associate discretionary bonuses to as low as $6,000 for 2008.
All 2008 bonuses will be paid on February 27th, but “evaluation-based bonuses” are being revised. Hours-based bonuses for everyone, and discretionary bonuses for New York-based associates, will stay the same.
The discretionary bonus structure announced in May ranged between $25,000 and $80,000. The revised structure for 2008 ranges between $6,000 and $62,000.
The firm is also freezing associate salaries for 2009. But associates living in New York could receive what would have been their 2009 raise as a bonus sometime in 2010.
Morrison & Foerster LLP has more than 1,000 lawyers in 19 offices. The firm was founded in San Francisco in 1883.