It will be three weeks this Thursday since Milbank announced its special summer bonuses for associates and counsel, ranging from $6,000 to $25,000. While it took Cravath, Swaine & Moore nearly three weeks last year to announce its salary and year-end bonus structure after Milbank, several industry observers said they believed law firms could still match the summer bonuses even after Labor Day this year.
That’s because many elite firm partners are on vacation or in court this week, noted legal industry recruiters, who added the timeline for bonus announcements could be pushed to next week—or even later. Some said bonuses could happen weeks from now, as firms parse out their budgets and see end-of-year results, while some could be holding out to incentivize associates.