Top 50 Biglaw Firm Floods The Market With Even More Cash Bonus Money – Above the Law

Thanks to Davis Polk’s long-awaited announcement, the Biglaw bonus levees have officially been breached, and law firms are making their own bonus announcements left and right. Watch out for the flood of cash that’s about to flow through the legal profession!

Debevoise & Plimpton — a firm that brought in $1,224,942,000 gross revenue in 2020, putting it at #31 in the most recent Am Law 100 — made its own bonus announcement this afternoon. Lo and behold, the firm has matched both the Cravath bonus scale and the Davis Polk special bonus scale. According to the memo sent to all associates, here’s what that looks like at Debevoise:

“This has been another year of extraordinary challenges,” writes presiding partner Michael Blair. “Despite those challenges, you have unfailingly met the needs of our clients at the highest level, while also providing invaluable support to your colleagues.” These generous bonuses, ranging from $15,000 to $138,000, are a special thank you from the firm and a wonderful way to end another difficult pandemic year on a high note.

Congratulations to everyone at the firm!

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

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


Staci ZaretskyStaci 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 or connect with her on LinkedIn.


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