Author: TSA Press

Spring is in the air, and bonus season is here once again. We don’t usually see many bonuses in March, but like 2020, 2021 is turning out to be an odd year.

Since we broke the news of the special bonus scale for associates and counsel at large law firms in the United States — a trend that was started by Willkie on Friday, March 19, 2021 (offering between $7,500 and $40,000), and quickly one-upped by Davis Polk on Monday, March 22, 2021 (offering between $12,000 and $64,000) — many firms quickly fell in line and matched the generous scale. When will your firm announce its special bonuses?

As usual, we are compiling a table of all the firms that have already matched the special bonus scale, the minimum hours required to receive those bonuses (if available), and the date those bonuses will be paid. Today, we unveil that table for your viewing pleasure. We will be updating this table on a daily basis, sometimes multiple times, as news on bonuses is announced. If you see any information here that is incorrect or needs clarification, let us know.

Help us help you now (and if/when you decide to make a lateral move in the future). Let us know what your firm’s minimum billable hours targets are for special bonus eligibility and when your firm will pay those bonuses. You generally must remain at your firm until the payout date to receive them, as stated in most memos, which could make it all the more difficult for you to leave your job.

As a little reminder, we love covering Biglaw bonuses, but we need your help. As soon as your firm’s bonus memo comes out, please email it to us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus”). We always keep our sources on bonus stories anonymous. There’s no need to send the memo using your firm email account; your personal email account is fine. Please be sure to include the memo as proof; we like to post complete bonus memos as a service to our readers. You can take a photo of the memo and attach as a picture if you’re worried about metadata in a PDF/Word file.

Firm	Date Matched	Minimum Hours	Payout Date
Willkie Class of 2020: $7.5K $12K Class of 2014+: $40K $64K	FIRST MOVER March 19, 2021	None	June 30, 2021 / September 30, 2021
Davis Polk Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2014+/Counsel: $64K	March 22, 2021	None	April 26, 2021 / September 30, 2021
Fenwick & West Tier 1/Level 1: $12K Tier 3/Counsel: $64K	March 23, 2021	1950 creditable hours, measured pro rata (the firm also offered reward credits of up to $15K for rest, recreation, and relaxation in mid-March)	May 2021 / September 2021
Milbank Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2013: $64K	March 24, 2021	None (September bonuses “may take into account individual contributions” and “some individuals may receive a higher or lower amount than the specific level described above”; counsel bonuses “determined and communicated on an individual basis”)	April 30, 2021 / September 30, 2021
Skadden Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2014+: $64K	March 24, 2021	1800 “productive” hours, measured pro rata (those who don’t meet the eligibility requirement in June will receive “catch-up” payments in December if the hours threshold is met by then)	June 2021 / December 2021
Cleary Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2014+: $64K	March 24, 2021	None	April 30, 2021 / August 30, 2021
Paul Weiss Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2014+/Counsel: $64K	March 24, 2021	None	June 30, 2021 / September 30, 2021
Debevoise Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2014+/Counsel: $64K	March 24, 2021	None	June 30, 2021 / September 30, 2021
Simpson Thacher Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2013: $64K	March 25, 2021	None (bonuses for counsel/senior counsel “determined at year-end on a case-by-case basis”)	June 30, 2021 / September 30, 2021
Paul Hastings Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2014+: $64K	March 25, 2021	Eligibility details to come sometime in April 2021	May 28, 2021 / October 29, 2021
Goodwin Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2014+: $64K	March 25, 2021	1850 annualized hours (1750 hours for special counsel ($64K total), senior attorneys ($44K total), and department and discovery attorneys/science advisors/science law clerks ($12K total))	July 1, 2021 / October 1, 2021
Proskauer Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2013: $64K	March 25, 2021	None	May 14, 2021 / November 15, 2021
Hueston Hennigan Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2013: $64K	March 26, 2021	None	June 2021 / September 2021
DLA Piper Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2014+: $64K	March 26, 2021	None	May 2021 / September 2021
Ropes & Gray Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2014+/Counsel: $64K	March 26, 2021	None	April 30, 2021 / Late December 2021
Gunderson Dettmer Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2014+/Counsel: $64K	March 26, 2021	1950 annualized hours (if anyone misses the cutoff for either period, but finishes the year with 1950+ hours, they’ll receive “catch-up” bonus payments)	May 2021 / September 2021
Cooley Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2014+/Counsel: $64K	March 26, 2021	1950 creditable hours, measured pro rata (those who miss the June payout will be eligible to receive the September payment if they hit the required hours)	June 30, 2021 / September 30, 2021
Morgan Lewis Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2014+: $64K	March 26, 2021	None	June 2021 / October 2021
Latham Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2014+: $64K	March 29, 2021	Associates who are “at or above their individual hours budget” as of April 30 and September 30 will receive bonuses	May 14, 2021 / October 15, 2021
Wilson Sonsini Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2012+: $64K	March 29, 2021	Those on track to bill at least 1950 bonus-eligible hours in 2021 will receive payouts based on year-to-date hours billed as of May 31 and August 31; make-up payments will be available	June 30, 2021 / September 30, 2021
Weil Gotshal Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2014+/3-Year Counsel: $64K	March 29, 2021	None	May 2021 / November 2021
Lowenstein Sandler Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2013: $64K	March 29, 2021	Annualized minimum of 1800 client billable hours and at least 150 firm directed hours (e.g., pro bono, diversity efforts, recruiting, practice group activities, or additional billable hours) from October 1, 2020 through the applicable measurement dates (April 30, 2021 and July 31, 2021); firm will offer catch-up payments for anyone who misses the mark on April 30, but meets the eligibility threshold at July 31	June 30, 2021 / September 30, 2021
Cravath Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2014: $64K	March 29, 2021	None	April 30, 2021 / September 30, 2021
Kirkland & Ellis Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2015+: $59.2K NSP: $64K	March 29, 2021	None	April 30, 2021 / September 30, 2021
Pillsbury Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2014/Counsel: $64K	March 29, 2021	Those who are “tracking to meet or exceed” client billable and total creditable hours targets for the periods ending April 30 and September 30 are eligible for bonuses; “catch up” credit available to be met by September 30 or December 31	May 15, 2021 / October 15, 2021
Sidley Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2014+: $64K	March 29, 2021	None	June 2021 / November 2021
Akin Gump Class of 2020: $12K Class of 2014+: $64K	March 30, 2021	“[P]roductivity will not be factored into the May bonus”; unstated in memo, but October payment may be hours-based	May 15, 2021 / October 15, 2021

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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Whether they want to admit it or not, Biglaw firms are in the midst of a relatively slow-moving race to see which firms are willing to pay their associates at the top of the market rate. Above the Law is committed to documenting all of the compensation machinations, and the recent advent of spring special bonuses has kept us all busy.

Sidley has gotten into the bonus game. Yesterday, the elite firm — ranked number 6 in the Am Law 200 with $2,337,803,000 gross revenue in 2019 — announced they’d be matching the prevailing market rate (set by the good folks at Davis Polk). They’re going with June and November disbursements, with the second payment larded up in comparison to the more modest first payday.

Associates in good standing will receive bonuses according to the following schedule:

Special bonuses are also going out to associates outside the U.S. and special counsel, to be communicated directly. And, natch, “special bonus payments will not impact our usual year-end bonus process.”

Full memo is available on the next page.

Congrats!

Please help us help you when it comes to bonus news at other firms. As soon as your firm’s bonus memo comes out, please email it to us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus”) or text us (646-820-8477). 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, 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.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. 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).

As spring special bonuses roll through Biglaw, associates who work at firms that *haven’t* ponied up the big bucks are in a waiting game. Will their firm flex its financial muscle and show associates some love (read: cash)? Well, folks at D.C.-based Akin Gump just got good news —  the firm announced their bonuses.

Akin is rolling out bonuses that match the prevailing market standard, as set by Davis Polk. It was expected, but still nice to see.

Associates in good standing will be paid bonuses according to the following scale:

	May 15 Payment Amount	October 15 Payment Amount	Total Bonus Amount
Class of 2020	$4,500	$7,500	$12,000
Class of 2019	$6,000	$10,000	$16,000
Class of 2018	$12,000	$20,000	$32,000
Class of 2017	$16,500	$27,500	$44,000
Class of 2016	$19,500	$32,500	$52,000
Class of 2015	$22,200	$37,000	$59,200
Class of 2014 and senior	$24,000	$40,000	$64,000

And the firm notes, “[a]s we are only a quarter into the year, productivity will not be factored into the May bonus.”

Congrats!

Please help us help you when it comes to bonus news at other firms. As soon as your firm’s bonus memo comes out, please email it to us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus”) or text us (646-820-8477). 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, 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.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. 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).

These bonus announcements are starting to read like Myers-Briggs results. Pillsbury is joining the special bonus game as an MOBLDPWM — “May-October Back-Loaded Davis Polk & Wardwell Match.”

That’s really the only drama left with these announcements.

Bonuses will go out to associates on track for their billable minimums. Associates who miss out in April have the opportunity to catch up in October.

But that’s not the only exciting news from Pillsbury. As the memo notes:

We are considering additional ways to both reward your hard work and address the stresses many of you have described. We welcome your ideas and will be sharing information soon.

Here’s your chance, Pillsbury team. Get the firm on board with special gifts to rival Davis Polk’s offerings. Not just for yourselves but for the entire legal community. Because if the last two weeks have taught us nothing else, it’s that Davis Polk will keep raising the bar to not be outdone by anyone else.

When reached for comment, associates replied, “Tee hee.” Don’t know what that’s all about.

Please help us help you when it comes to bonus news at other firms. As soon as your firm’s bonus memo comes out, please email it to us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus”) or text us (646-820-8477). 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, 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.

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Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

As predicted, now that Cravath has signed off on the latest round of special bonuses, Biglaw firms of all stripes have waltzed in to grace their associates (and counsel) with piles of cash. Now, the most profitable Biglaw firm in the the world has decided to offer some input.

What is Kirkland & Ellis planning to bring to the table?

The No. 1 firm in the country, known for its above-market bonuses, brought in $4,154,600,000 gross revenue in 2019, but it’s not going to be shattering the market on special bonuses. Instead, Kirkland is offering its associates a Davis Polk match and throwing a bone to its overworked and underpaid non-equity partners (“non-share partners” or “NSPs”) as well. Here’s what the special bonus scale looks like at K&E (full memo available on the next page):

Rather than offering a $64K payday for its eldest associates in the Class of 2014 and beyond, the firm is reserving that sum for its partners in name only, perhaps in the hope that they’ll be a little less desperate to escape the firm and keep endlessly working like the leveraged little assets they are.

Kirkland acknowledges in its bonus memo that business demands have been “unrelenting” and thanks to the team’s “remarkable ongoing efforts,” there are no hours requirements attached to these bonuses. As noted above, payments will be made on April 30 and September 30. Congratulations to all.

(Flip to the next page to see the full memo from Kirkland & Ellis.)

Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of important bonus updates, so when your firm matches, 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!

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

A Sunnyside, Washington-based health system is laying the blame for its 2019 bankruptcy squarely on the shoulders of its EHR vendor — Cerner.

In a lawsuit filed last week, Astria Health claims that Cerner’s EHR and billing and collections platforms “failed so spectacularly” that they drove the system into bankruptcy in May 2019. The health system eventually emerged from bankruptcy in early 2020, but not intact — one of its hospitals had to close.

North Kansas City, Missouri-based Cerner began pursuing Astria Health’s business in 2016, intentionally making several misrepresentations about the capabilities, features and pricing of its products and services, the suit alleges. The health system contracted with the vendor in 2017 for EHR services, and the following year, signed a contract for Cerner’s RevWorks revenue cycle management platform, which was deployed at all three hospitals.

The RevWorks platform failed to operate properly from the time the rollout began resulting in serious cash collections issues, the health system claims. Prior to the platform rollout, collections were 97% of net revenue. This figure dropped to 54% of net revenue after the system was implemented, Astria Health alleges.

“…as a result of issues with RevWorks, Astria suffered a significant and catastrophic decline in cash flow from collections on accounts receivable,” the health system states in the lawsuit.

Astria Health ended up defaulting or falling behind on its payments to lenders, which, in turn, led to it filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the lawsuit states. Further, the health system was forced to close Astria Regional Medical Center in Yakima, Washington, due to its cash collection issues.

Cerner denies the allegations made in the lawsuit, said Anamarie Rebori Simmons, a company spokesperson, in an email.

“We categorically deny the allegations made in the lawsuit, we disagree on the merits, and we will vigorously defend the company,” Simmons said. The company did not address any specific allegation.

It appears that Astria was not the only health system dissatisfied with Cerner’s RevWorks. In fact, in a 2019 KLAS report, 70% of clients said they would not buy the platform again. Cerner finally sold it to R1 RCM last June.

Cerner not only misrepresented the RevWorks platform, but also its EHR system and how the two would work together, Astria Health said in the lawsuit.

In 2017, Cerner claimed that its EHR and revenue cycle software fully integrate, combining clinical data and financial information. But Astria later learned that Cerner’s EHR system did not properly integrate with the RevWorks platform.

Astria Health insists that the issues with the Cerner systems “will continue to damage Astria in ways that cannot yet be quantified.” The health system is still using both the Cerner EHR system and RevWorks platform at its facilities, said Ashley Oswald, an Astria Health spokesperson, on a phone call.

The health system is seeking damages and the costs and attorneys’ fees they will incur in connection with this lawsuit.

In addition, it is asking for the $2.4 million that it paid to Cerner for the EHR and revenue cycle management systems.

Photo: Hailshadow, Getty Images

* Nike filed a trademark infringement lawsuit over Lil Nas X’s so-called “Satan Shoes” which include a drop of human blood and other Satanic imagery. Guess the old town road went straight to hell, and hope they hired the “Devil’s advocate”… [Forbes]

* The trial in a class action against 3M, on behalf of servicepeople who allegedly suffered hearing loss from faulty ear plugs, is underway. [Military.com]

* Seattle is taking steps to ensure that everyone facing eviction has the benefit of a lawyer. [Seattle Times]

* A Florida lawyer faces possible disbarment for allegedly taking money from clients and ghosting them. [Click Orlando]

* A woman representing herself pro se was able to discharge tens of thousands of dollars of student loans in bankruptcy. Maybe she would have gotten more debt discharged if she went to law school… [Yahoo News]

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Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.

There’s still a global pandemic going on, and law students have been attending classes virtually for over a year now. Thanks to a global vaccine rollout, some students may be able to attend their graduations, and next year, many others will be able to attend class in person. But what people care about right now is law school rankings. How did law schools fare during the coronavirus crisis? We’re about to find out.

The latest edition of the U.S. News & World Report Law School Rankings are out, but not without much controversy. For the first time in what could be history, these rankings were publicly changed three times prior to their release due to several errors and omissions. It’s the kind of thing that really makes you confident in the U.S. News calculations. But still, law school deans hoped they were able to retain their ranks or rise, some prospective law students waited to send out seat deposits based on these rankings, and current law students crossed their fingers that the school they’re set to graduate from would be no less prestigious.

That said, here’s the official list of the Top 14 law schools in the nation, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report in the year 2021. Changes in rank from this year over last year come to us courtesy of Mike Spivey of the Spivey Consulting Group.

(1) Yale University (0)
(2) Stanford University (0)
(3) Harvard University (0)
(4) Columbia University (0)
(4) University of Chicago (0)
(6) New York University (0)
(6) University of Pennsylvania (+1)
(8) University of Virginia (0)
(9) University of California–Berkeley (0)
(10) Duke University (+2)
(10) University of Michigan–Ann Arbor (-1)
(12) Northwestern University (-3)
(13) Cornell University (0)
(14) University of California–Los Angeles (+1)

A new law school has entered the scene. No longer is Georgetown putting the 14 in T14. Welcome to the tippy top of the rankings, UCLA! Penn gets a one-up, but what happened with Northwestern? Whatever the case may be, Duke won out.

Now, let’s take a gander at the law schools outside of the T14. Like years past, we’re faced with yet another rankings orgy, with nothing but ties, ties, and more ties. There are five ties in this segment of the rankings alone (three ties, one three-way tie, and one six-way tie), with more to follow. Here are the schools ranked 15 – 29:

(15) Georgetown University (-1)
(16) University of Texas–Austin (0)
(16) Vanderbilt University (+2)
(16) Washington University in St. Louis (+1)
(19) University of Southern California (-1)
(20) Boston University (0)
(21) University of Florida (+3)
(22) University of Minnesota (-1)
(22) University of Notre Dame (0)
(24) University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill (+3)
(25) University of Alabama (+6)
(25) Arizona State University (-1)
(27) University of Georgia (+4)
(27) George Washington University (-4)
(29) Brigham Young University (+8)
(29) Emory University (-5)
(29) Boston College (+2)
(29) University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign (+2)
(29) University of Iowa (-2)
(29) University of Wisconsin–Madison (+9)

The big winners here are Alabama, BYU, and Wisconsin, up six, eight, and nine spots in the rankings, respectively. Congratulations to each school, as they must be doing something right to climb the rankings. The biggest loser in this segment of the rankings is obviously Georgetown. The school only dropped one spot, but that one-spot drop that booted the school out of the T14. Emory, of course, lost out on being a Top 25 school, but GULC’s drop here… ::gulp::.

Now, for the rest of the law schools in the Top 50, where there are five ties and one five-way tie. As you can see, there was A LOT of movement here:

(35) Fordham University (-8)
(35) University of California–Irvine (-8)
(35) Washington and Lee University (-4)
(35) William & Mary Law School (-4)
(35) University of California–Davis (+3)
(40) Ohio State University (-2)
(41) George Mason University (+1)
(41) Wake Forest University (+1)
(43) Indiana University–Bloomington (-5)
(43) University of Utah (+2)
(45) University of Washington (-3)
(46) Pepperdine University Caruso (+1)
(46) University of Arizona (+1)
(48) Florida State University (+2)
(48) University of Colorado–Boulder (-2)
(50) University of California–Hastings (+9)
(50) University of Maryland (-3)

The biggest winner here was UC Hastings, which moved up nine places in the 2022 law school rankings, propelling the school into the Top 50. The biggest losers here were Fordham and UC Irvine, with eight-spot drops, respectively. Whatever those schools are doing, they better shape up, because some have already been shipped out of the Top 30 — with others almost out of the Top 50.

We will continue to update this page as we analyze more data from the latest edition of the U.S. News law school rankings. Stay tuned.

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.