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Mid-level lawyers at some US firms will be paid bonuses of more than $300,000 this month as top firms battle to hire and keep star performers.
New York law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel has announced total bonuses for associates worth up to $315,000, including a “super bonus” of up to $200,000 for top performers.
Associates at litigation boutique Elsberg Baker & Maruri will be paid bonuses of up to $226,250. In a memo to its lawyers this month the firm said they had “showed up with the grit, tenacity and good humor that allow us to perform for our clients at the highest level while enjoying the work”.
The large payouts to associates — who tend to be in their twenties and early to mid-thirties — underscore how competitive the legal market has become, with the best-paid lawyers now roughly on par with their investment banking peers.
“Competition for mid-level and senior associates is intense right now, driven by an active deal market and major litigations,” said Jon Truster at legal recruiter Macrae. “Many are investing heavily in initiatives designed to keep associates engaged and satisfied, including paying sizeable bonuses.”
Chicago-headquartered Katten Muchin Rosenman has offered as much as $172,500 to its top associates plus “superstar bonuses”, the value of which the firm declined to disclose.
The majority of large US law firms offer less generous bonuses than the highest payers, as they tend to use the so-called Cravath scale, matching the rewards set by elite corporate firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore. This year the scale reaches $140,000 for top performers.
“I’m very much of the view that someone billing 2,000 hours shouldn’t be compensated on the same basis as someone billing 2,500 hours,” said Natasha Harrison, founder of litigation specialist Pallas Partners, which is offering bonuses of up to $232,000 to its associates and counsel in the US and UK this year.
The figure includes as much as $92,000 in “step-up” bonuses for lawyers who have worked the longest hours.
“It’s not that we encourage people to work 2,500 hours, but there are times when you’re on a trial where the hours [are long],” said Harrison.
Pallas, which has 14 partners and employs 22 associates and counsel in London and New York, is working on three trials that are due to start in the first two months of 2026.
Cravath has made a reputation for announcing its bonus figures earlier than others, though Milbank has disrupted the model in recent years by handing out “special” payouts in the summer, which other firms tend to match at the end of the year.
This year large firms, including Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Davis Polk, are offering bonuses worth up to $140,000 to their junior attorneys.
The bonuses take total annual pay as high as $550,000 for associates with about seven years’ experience. The Cravath scale for base salaries, which is matched by most competitors, ranges from $225,000 for the most junior lawyers to $420,000 for those who joined the firm in 2019.
British “magic circle” firms with US operations, including Clifford Chance, Linklaters and A&O Shearman, have matched the figures for their US lawyers, according to people with knowledge of the payouts.
The bonuses come as revenues of law firms are rising because of higher fees and greater demand. Research published this month by Citigroup and Hildebrandt Consulting, which advises law firms, found that revenues among the 185 firms surveyed rose by an average of 11.3 per cent in the first nine months of 2025.
The increase was driven in part by a 9.6 per cent rise in lawyers’ fee rates and a 1.9 per cent rise in demand, it found. Remuneration costs rose 9.8 per cent.
