Bonuses, bonuses, and extra bonuses! Yet one more Biglaw agency has stepped into the 2025 bonus area, rolling out its year-end awards. Whereas the market continues to attend for a pacesetter — cough, Milbank, cough — to interrupt from the pack with one thing splashier, this newest announcement exhibits that companies are nonetheless jockeying for place by providing greater and higher bonuses to their highest billers.
Ropes & Grey — a agency that introduced in $3,416,636,000 gross income in 2024, placing it at No. 7 on the latest Am Regulation 100 — has introduced a Cravath match for year-end bonuses for individuals who have met 1900 creditable hours, and a Milbank match for particular bonuses.
That is what the agency’s bonus scales appear to be (notice that for the Class of 2017 and past, Ropes is providing associates $15,000 in further bonus cash):
- Class of 2025 – $15,000 / $6,000 (prorated)
- Class of 2024 – $20,000 / $6,000
- Class of 2023 – $30,000 / $10,000
- Class of 2022 – $57,500 / $15,000
- Class of 2021 – $75,000 / $20,000
- Class of 2020 – $90,000 / $25,000
- Class of 2019 – $105,000 / $25,000
- Class of 2018 – $115,000 / $25,000
- Class of 2017+ – $130,000 / $25,000
Along with matching each the year-end and the particular bonus scales, the agency is providing bonuses that “could also be elevated as much as 150% of the year-end bonus quantities” for individuals who have billed “materially extra” than their 1900-hour billable expectation.
Congratulations to everybody at Ropes & Grey!
Bear in mind everybody, we rely in your tricks to keep on prime of compensation updates, so when your agency publicizes or matches, please textual content us (646-820-8477) or e mail us (topic line: “[Firm Name] Bonus/Matches”). Please embody the memo if out there. You possibly can take a photograph of the memo and ship it by way of textual content or e mail for those who don’t wish to ahead the unique PDF or Phrase file.
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Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of Above the Regulation, the place she’s labored since 2011. She’d love to listen to from you, so please be at liberty to e mail her with any suggestions, questions, feedback, or critiques. You possibly can observe her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or join along with her on Lin
