Big Law Always ‘Willing to Pay More’ as Bonuses Reach $100,000

Big Law bonus season is nigh, and firms are getting ready to throw higher amounts of money at some associates than they did last year—even after giving them two seasonal awards and a base salary bump earlier in 2021.

Annual bonuses will likely match last year’s scale of $15,000 to $100,000, though some lawyers will see special bonuses on top of that, as partners seek to reward increasingly overworked associates who carried the load for firms during another year of record profits.

“One thing firms have started to realize is that there’s no bottom,” said Stephanie Ruiter, a director at ...