The concept of “eat what you kill” common to many financial groups has been mostly unknown among lawyers, and especially those on the lower rungs of the ladder. In a change of tone, major US law firms are now forking over year-end holiday bonuses as high as $315,000 to associate lawyers, figures not seen before. Grunts typically get paid mostly in fixed salaries that vary little across the industry: typically from $225,000 to $420,000 annually based on year of service. But that system had already started to creak. For the top litigators and dealmakers, big firms have been paying as much as $25mn in the belief that future winners will be those with an all-star line-up of lawyers.
