Does anyone else think the bonus structure is kind of terrible in big law especially when you are junior? We only get an extra $3,000 for billing an additional 400 hours which is $7.50 per hour.

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Yes, because it is terrible. Partners and management will tell you that it (along with a lot of the other unfair aspects of your job) is justified because you make a high salary. If you point out that your salary is a fraction of what you’re billed out at, they’ll say that partners deserve to be paid exponentially higher because the firm wouldn’t exist without the business they generate. But firms as they’re structured today also wouldn’t exist without exploiting associate labor. Hence, for example, a $7.50/hour “bonus.”

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And it’s pretty rare that an individual partner leaving has a significant impact on a meaningful size firm, so that logic doesn’t really work either. The reality is simply that partners own the place so they can do what they want.

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3k for 400 in big law does not sound right bud

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We get $18,000 total for hitting 2,400 as opposed to $15,000 for 2,000. So it’s an extra $3,000 for an extra 400 hours.

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There’s a pretty prevalent feeling among associates at my firm that once you hit 2000 hours, you’ve done your duty. Partners don’t like it, but, as you say, the incentive for hitting the 2400 mark is just not sufficient.

Take the income of a 4th year who hits their hours: 255k salary + 65k bonus = 320. That’s $160/ billable hr. The extra bonus for 400 more hours is 13k, or $33/billable hr. No thanks.

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