Bonus season has officially begun. Cravath, the firm that’s the standard bearer for Biglaw associate compensation, has kicked off the 2025 bonus sweepstakes. And Cravath’s not here for restraint.
The firm announced year-end bonuses and a round of special bonuses that mirror the Milbank summer bonuses. As reflected in the chart below, the year-end bonus amounts echo last year’s bonus scale. Maybe they’re not reinventing the bonus wheel, but there’s a pretty big paycheck headed associates’ way.
New York and D.C. associates will get their bonuses on December 12th (with no hours requirement, as per usual for the firm), while London associates will have to wait an extra week for the money to hit their accounts.
And because it’s Cravath, every other Biglaw partner just felt the sudden urge to “circle back” with their executive committees.
Now we wait for the inevitable parade of matching announcements. Davis Polk will follow soon. Paul Weiss will toss in something shiny. Latham will eventually make its move, confident as always. And every associate in Biglaw will spend the next 72 hours refreshing their inbox like it’s a Taylor Swift ticket queue.
But for now, Cravath has officially fired the starting gun.
Bonus season is here. May your hours be high and your disappointment minimal.
So, is your firm matching *both* the year-end and special bonuses? Let Above the Law know! We depend on your tips to stay on top of important bonus updates, so when your firm matches (or if they fail to do so), 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 all of your help!
Read the full memo below.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.
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