By Hillary Mantis
Cravath Swaine & Moore just announced its end of the year bonuses. They will be keeping bonuses mainly at the same levels as 2010, according to a recent story in the Wall Street Journal. These bonuses are slightly higher than in 2009, but down quite a bit from 2007, the story said.
Cravath is traditionally the first major law firm to announce its bonus structure. In other years, other major law firms have often matched Cravath’s figures, according to the WSJ.
Is this a sign that bonuses will be at last year’s levels for other firms?
“This year has steadily gone downhill for a lot of firms,” said law firm consultant Peter Zeughauser. He remarked that M&A work has slowed down at many firms as the year continued.” Frankly, its’ gotten worse each quarter,” he said.
The bonuses will reportedly range from $7,500 to $37,500. As recently as 2007, some law firms paid bonuses as high as $60,000, according to the WSJ.
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