Spring came early to New York this year, with temperatures climbing into the low 20s several days before winter officially finished – but there hasn’t been a spring in the steps of Manhattan white shoe and other major US law firms, as not one has announced bonuses for its associates.
The 2012 position stands in stark contrast with the cascade of cash that top firms poured on their lawyers this time last year. According to a report in the AmLaw Daily web site, by this time 12 months ago, 21 firms in the top-100 had awarded cash payments to associates – with bonuses ranging between $2,500 and $20,000.
Over the next month and a half, another 26 firms did the same, meaning that nearly half of the top players had doled out sweeteners to their associates.

Well runs dry

But fast-forward a year and the wells have very much run dry. According to the web site, not only had the management committees of the top-100 held an iron grip on the purse strings, not one of the firms in the second 100 had coughed up any cash bonuses either.
At the end of last December, ‘old white shoe’ firm Sullivan & Cromwell had appeared set to repeat its 2011 performance, when it led the bonus charge. However, despite suggestions that it would be handing out spring sweeties, the web site says that come the second half of March and there wasn’t a peep from the firm on the subject.

Fee pressure

According to the site, managing partners at four top-100 firms only agreed to address the increasingly delicate subject on the basis of anonymity. All four said bonuses at their firms were unlikely.
The view is that continuing unease over the health of the US legal sector caused by unabating fee pressure from corporate clients has triggered the caution at the top firms.