The associate bonus season at Milbank LLP has started as the firm revealed year-end bonuses ranging from $15,000 to $115,000, based on seniority, amid a successful year for the firm, and the firm said it will pay those by December 31, 2024. 

Milbank follows August’s announcement of special bonuses ranging from $6,000 to $25,000 under the new bonus scale shared in an internal memo with associates. So far, Milbank’s competitors do not have matched special bonuses the firm gave as an added reward of a successful year. Incremental increases comprise the year-end bonus, with first-year associates receiving $15,000 and members in the class of 2016 eligible for up to $115,000. 

Milbank also has bonus structure meaning that those associates in good standing from the class of 2024 will total $21,000 consisting both the special and year-end bonuses. Classes 2016 and 2017 of associates might get bonuses going as high as $140,000 as the special bonuses were recently announced this year with a combination. 

In the memo, Milbank’s chairman, Scott Edelman, said the firm was quite grateful for the very hard work of all of the associates on complex, high-profile transactions, restructurings, and litigations. “The firm is having a record year, and we expect to remain busy through year-end,” he said. 

Milbank was in the news last November with a $10,000 annual salary hike for associates that created a trend later matched and exceeded by its arch-rivals like Cravath Swaine & Moore. So, several of the biggest law firms including McDermott Will & Emery, Paul Hastings, and Skadden have adjusted their scales of compensation to keep pace. 

Milbank’s commitment to rewarding its associates comes at a time when the law firm market has become incredibly competitive with the excesses of high compensation and performance bonuses being fought by firms over the top talent.