Biglaw Firm Increases Associate Salaries, Goes Over The Top On Bonuses For Highest Billers

The biggest billers at this firm will be making bank in bonus bucks. Congrats!

Money transfer concept – $100 US dollar banknote with blurred motion effect.News of raises and bonuses has been coming in hot across the Biglaw scene ever since Cravath announced its new compensation scale — and while many associates are out celebrating, others are starting to get antsy playing the waiting game with their firms.

Luckily, associates at this top firm no longer need to wait.

We’ve received word that Sheppard Mullin — a firm that brought in $1,052,812,000 gross revenue in 2022, putting it at No. 48 in the most recent Am Law 100 — will be matching the Cravath compensation grid, meaning these are the salaries associates at the firm will see, as of January 1, 2024:

IMG_1255

Sheppard Mullin is also matching the Cravath bonus scale, and just like in years past, the firm is handsomely rewarding associates who went above and beyond the call of duty when it came to their billable hours. This is what year-end bonuses will look like at the firm, to be paid on January 26, 2024:

IMG_1256

As you can see, Sheppard Mullin awards base year-end bonuses at the 2000-hour mark, and those who go over on their billing will receive even more bonus bucks. Specifically, associates who record 2200 and 2400 hours will receive 110% and 120% of the market-based bonus.

Congratulations to everyone at Sheppard Mullin!

(Flip to the next page to read the full memo from the firm.)

Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of compensation updates, so when your firm announces or matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus/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 your help!


Staci ZaretskyStaci 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 and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.


Bonus Time

Enter your email address to sign up for ATL's Bonus & Salary Increase Alerts.