Selendy Gay Tops Big Law Bonuses With $132,250 Awards (1)

Selendy Gay Elsberg is joining boutique law firms in topping Big Law’s bonus scale this year by giving associates as much as $132,250 in seniority-based awards.

“The bonus scale recognizes your tremendous efforts this year,” firm leaders told associates in a memo viewed by Bloomberg Law. The memo cited “excellent, hard work on multiple, simultaneous trials” and covering for colleagues who were in court.

Selendy Gay is also matching a new salary scale set by Cravath, Swaine & Moore that starts at $225,000 for junior litigators.

The boutique’s move follows similar actions by rivals. Susman Godfrey is giving its associates as much as $360,000 while Wilkinson Stekloff is doling out up to $201,250 for its senior associates. New York-founded boutique Holwell Shuster & Goldberg and private equity boutique Massumi + Consoli LLP are matching the new scale set by Cravath, according to internal memos viewed by Bloomberg Law.

Selendy Gay, which has 63 associates, went on a junior -litigator hiring spree in February. One of its hires included Temidayo Aganga-Williams, who served as senior investigative counsel for the House select committee on the January 6th attack. Before joining the firm as a partner, Aganga-Williams was a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn.

Milbank LLP was the first Big Law firm to announce bonuses for its associate pool this year. Weeks later, Cravath, Swaine & Moore topped Milbank’s numbers and bumped salaries for its first three classes of associates by $10,000. Many Big Law firms including Kirkland & Ellis and Paul Hastings raced to match the new scale.

Selendy’s associate bonuses will be paid December 15.