The law firm of Willkie Farr handed out bonuses to its associates back in December but news of the bonuses is just leaking out now. Willkie Farr is one of the most prominent law firms in New York, so you can bet on what they did for bonuses in 2011.
The firm announced a variant of the Cravath/Sullivan & Cromwell bonus scale. The scale can be defined as the Cleary Gottlieb scale, which is one of the more generous bonus scales of all the main-line law firms out there. The scale offers prorated bonuses for the class of 2011 and a top payment of $42,500 for the senior lawyers at the firm (class of 2003 and up).
Cleary announced its bonuses on December 9, which is when Willkie Farr announced its bonuses to its associates. Since the two announcements came at almost the same time, it is safe to say that Willkie Farr created its bonus scale on its own. As a matter of face, maybe the bonus scale should be referred to as the ‘Cleary/Willkie scale.’
The memo sent out to associates at Willkie Farr can be seen at the bottom of this post.