Bonus information is being introduced left and proper, and Biglaw companies are busy stuffing their associates’ financial institution accounts just like the Thanksgiving turkeys they’ll be wolfing down subsequent week. The newest bonus information comes from a model new megafirm that final night time issued its first spherical of bonuses beneath its new identify.
McDermott Will & Schulte — fashioned from the August 2025 union of McDermott Will & Emery and Schulte Roth & Zabel — has adopted the Cravath bonus scale, in addition to the Milbank particular bonus scale. Right here’s what that appears like on the agency:
On high of those bonuses, MWS might be persevering with certainly one of MWE’s traditions of providing bonuses that go above and past the market scale. As chairman Ira Coleman notes within the agency’s announcement, “We stay dedicated to being high of market in all that we do and are happy to notice that, per prior years, about two-thirds of legacy MWE Associates will earn above the Cravath scale.” We suppose legacy SRZ associates — who had been previously capable of money in on step-up bonuses for his or her extraordinary contributions — will have the ability to get in on that motion subsequent 12 months.
Bonuses for legacy MWE associates might be paid out on December 26, 2025, whereas bonuses for legacy SRZ associates might be paid out on January 16, 2026.
Congratulations to everybody at McDermott Will & Schulte!
Bear in mind everybody, we rely in your tricks to keep on high of compensation updates, so when your agency broadcasts or matches, please textual content us (646-820-8477) or email us (topic line: “[Firm Name] Bonus/Matches”). Please embody the memo if accessible. You may take a photograph of the memo and ship it through textual content or electronic mail if you happen to don’t wish to ahead the unique PDF or Phrase file.
And if you happen to’d like to enroll in ATL’s Bonus Alerts (which is the alert checklist we additionally use for wage bulletins), please scroll down and enter your electronic mail handle within the field under this publish. If you happen to beforehand signed up for the bonus alerts, you don’t have to do something. You’ll obtain an electronic mail notification inside minutes of every bonus announcement that we publish. Thanks to your assist!
Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of Above the Regulation, the place she’s labored since 2011. She’d love to listen to from you, so please be at liberty to email her with any ideas, questions, feedback, or critiques. You may comply with her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or join along with her on LinkedIn.