Bonus information is being introduced left and proper, and Biglaw corporations are busy stuffing their associates’ financial institution accounts just like the Thanksgiving turkeys they’ll be wolfing down subsequent week. The most recent bonus information comes from a model new megafirm that final evening issued its first spherical of bonuses underneath its new identify.
McDermott Will & Schulte — shaped 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 shall 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, according to prior years, about two-thirds of legacy MWE Associates will earn above the Cravath scale.” We suppose legacy SRZ associates — who have been previously in a position to 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 shall be paid out on December 26, 2025, whereas bonuses for legacy SRZ associates shall be paid out on January 16, 2026.
Congratulations to everybody at McDermott Will & Schulte!
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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 together with her on LinkedIn.
