Extra cash for trainees and associates too
The London office of US outfit Weil Gotshal has joined the Covid bonus bandwagon with newly qualified (NQ) lawyers set to receive a cash thank you of just under £8,000.
The bonus is equivalent to 6% of an NQ’s salary, which Legal Cheek‘s Firms Most List shows sits at a very sizeable £133,000. Year one trainees will receive a £3,000 bonus for their lockdown efforts, while their year two counterparts collect £3,300 — again 6% of salary.
Legal Cheek understands the bonuses step up to 8% and 14% for those associates with one and two years post-qualification experience (PQE), then the ranges are 17%, 18% and 19% at other PQEs. Bonuses will be paid part this month and part in December.
The news comes some three months after Weil splashed the thank you cash across its US offices, with lawyers receiving payouts of between $12,000 (£8,500) and $64,000 ($45,300), depending on experience.
Other US firms to offer similar levels of cash to their City associates include Akin Gump, Davis Polk, Goodwin Procter, Milbank (which sparked another MoneyLaw pay war last week), Paul Hastings, Quinn Emanuel, Simpson Thatcher and Skadden.
A whole bunch of UK headquartered law firms have dished out Covid bonuses too — albeit not to the same extent as their US competitors.
Magic circle foursome Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Linklaters and Slaughter and May, among others, provided awards of 5% of salary, while national player Shoosmiths dug a little deeper and and said thank you with a 7.7% bonus.