Laptop hint

A staffer at another firm makes a subtle hint to management


DLA Piper is thanking staff for their hard work during the pandemic by offering them an extra week of pay or holiday.

Fee earners and business services staff at the firm can choose between the bonus week of pay or holiday, which is in addition to other pay reviews and bonus awards.

“Throughout the pandemic our people have been exceptional," said Simon Levine, Global Co-CEO at DLA Piper. "Their fortitude, supportiveness and collaboration with colleagues, clients and our communities has been remarkable. The extra week’s pay or holiday is just one small way of us saying thank you to them for everything they have achieved in such a challenging year.”

Hogan Lovells is taking a regional approach to its Covid bonuses. Across EMEA and Asia-Pacific the firm will give all its business services staff and lawyers (except partners) a one-off discretionary payment of 5% of their salary, in addition to its usual pay and bonus reviews.

“As we continue to operate under very challenging conditions, we want to thank our people for their hard work and dedication in delivering for our clients during these difficult times," said CEO Miguel Zaldivar. "This has been an extraordinary time and everyone across the firm has pulled together to help us deliver a strong business performance.  This has enabled us to be able to acknowledge their hard work and commitment.”

In Mexico and Brazil, HogLove business services staff will also receive an additional discretionary bonus of 5% of their salary. And lawyers (other than partners) will receive an extra bonus of 5% of their salary - although it will be based on performance and a minimum hours requirement. 

In the US, HogLove is structuring the bonuses differently, as it is awarding a range of bonuses to lawyers depending on their performance, seniority and a reduced minimum hours requirement of 1,850. Business services staff in the US will receive an additional Covid bonus of $1,000 gross.

Walker Morris is thanking staff for their work during the pandemic, by giving them an extra bonus of £1,000.

"This has been a difficult year and we are proud of the contribution that all our employees have made, both individually and working collaboratively within their teams," said Malcolm Simpson from Walker Morris. "Despite the significant challenges, with our employees' help, we have come through this crisis a stronger, more resilient business. We have learned and adapted and we will all benefit from our new, more flexible ways of working."

The PR team at Walker Morris has been busy earning their extra grand this week, as the firm has also cropped up in another news story

Other firms to offer Covid bonuses include A&OClifford Chance, Herbert Smith Freehills and Linklaters dishing out a bonus of 5% of salary, while Addleshaw Goddard is paying a £1,500 bonus, and Ashurst is gifting £1,000 to its staff.

Tip Off ROF

Comments

Peer Pressure 09 April 21 09:26

 If you think every firm should be rewarding staff for what has been an extraordinary year. 
 

Maybe ROF should name the top 100 firms who aren’t doing this? 

Anonymous 09 April 21 10:18

Staff should be rewarding their firms for keeping them employed.

If you are a junior associate with no client following who is sat around polishing a seat with your behind, then you should be paying the partners a bonus for managing to bring in the work that keeps you in overpriced Paul Smith shirts.

Less of the 'please pay me extra for just doing my job' tosh.

Anon 09 April 21 10:58

Anon @ 1018 : Purlease...the only reason these firms are paying these bonuses is that their operating costs have reduced phenomenally over the last year (no travel, no events, etc.) while work levels have held up. This has led to a budget surplus that management teams (rightly) don’t want to distribute exclusively to partners for fear of (a) setting unrealistic expectations about future earnings/ profitability and (b) a client backlash against obscenely high pay at a time when many are struggling. Partners haven’t worked any harder to create these conditions, just been in the right place at the right time. 

NOTORIOUSPIG 09 April 21 11:06

Nice of DLA to offer an extra week of holiday. 
 

would have been nice to have both the bonus and an extra week of holiday so you can use the bonus money to spent on the holiday but I guess you can’t have your cake and eat it too. 
 

Nice gesture nevertheless 

Disgruntled 09 April 21 13:18

Would be good to have a league table ROF - our £250 bonus is starting to look a bit rubbish now...

Anonymous 09 April 21 15:21

A Freshfields NQ wouldn't stop in the street to pick £250 up.

They spend more than that in a chip shop.

 

Offering them such a miserly amount would, quite rightly, have been perceived as an insult.

Anonymous 09 April 21 16:34

I think this has reached the critical mass required to make the remainder of the top 50 look bad 

Anon 09 April 21 16:52

Weird that there’s no mention of the US firm special bonuses. At a decent number of London offices, associates have received COVID bonuses in October, Christmas bonuses, then a special bonus announced last week. 
 

for a 6-7pqe who is at hours target, that’s $40,000 + $100,000 + $64,000 in the last 6 months in bonuses. But the magic circle and others get free press for bunging everyone 5-10k. 

US associate 10 April 21 10:56

@16.52 - I was thinking the same, they don’t seem to like printing much about US firms here except negative stuff. My firm has been great throughout the pandemic and we’ve just had massive bonuses announced thanks to one firm which started all of this a few weeks ago. $$$

AnonymousSG 10 April 21 14:26

Meanwhile at Slaters, no Covid thank you's, and the original bonus scheme was cut by 50% despite the non-existence of a London office and considerable overhead savings across the country. 

Anon 12 April 21 14:19

Would be interested to know to what extent firms who are paying this have used furlough and whether they have repaid that cash to HMRC before paying out staff and topping up partner profits. Doesn’t sit quite right to have taken furlough cash to then free up money for use here. Pay back any furlough money first surely?

Good game good game 12 April 21 18:22

Skater and Mormon are playing their cards right with Brucey.  Higher Lower Higher Lower.  Oh you’ve gone bust.  Next week 15 to 1 with William G Stewart.  1 person undertakes the work of 15 people who have left.  Top middle or f bottom.

Name&Shame 12 April 21 20:11

Can ROF please name the law firms not making Covid-19 bonus payments or giving employees additional annual leave. It would be interesting to see how this aligns with the best / worst firms to work for per recent survey results.

Anon 12 April 21 22:39

Nothing from Pinsent Masons apart from regular emails from management informing us how well the firm is doing financially. 

Squire Patton Boilerroom 13 April 21 10:06

Nothing from SPB, other than management exhorting staff to flog news of our “best in class” practice areas all over LinkedIn like a bunch of desperate cucks.

How about a Covid bonus you greedy *****s?

Anonymous 13 April 21 13:40

"One week's pay bonus or holiday" is much better than saying "1.9% bonus", especially when you're being compared to firms paying out 5%. 

City 14 April 21 17:11

Talking of DLA Piper, Hogan Lovells and.....Walker Morris in the same breath is laughable.

Anon 15 April 21 10:52

Can ROF also name firms who gave their associates multiple bonuses over the last year while staff got a thank you email & £0? I’ll start: Latham & Watkins

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