Bonuses Bigger for Hardest-Working Patton Boggs Associates
Associates at the busiest Patton Boggs offices reportedly have been working harder than their counterparts where business is a bit slower.
So the firm decided to recognize their extra work with supersize bonuses, reports Texas Lawyer in an article reprinted by New York Lawyer (reg. req.). Those in the Washington, D.C.-based firm’s Dallas office, for instance, qualify for two bonuses based on their 2007 work. One, to be paid in January, is based simply on the hours they worked. The second, to be paid in February, also considers other factors such as participation on pro bono and firm committee projects, says Stanley Mayo, who serves as managing partner of 109-lawyer office.
“We were doing just a discretionary bonus; however, we felt like some of the associates—certainly in Dallas, New York and New Jersey—were working excess hours, and we felt we should provide a special bonus to them,” says Mayo. Cumulative bonuses will range roughly $10,000 to $70,000, he notes.
Determining associate bonuses is a bit complex: the firm separates associates into three tracks—with a required minimum of 1,650, 1,800 or 1,950 hours, respectively, depending on practice area—and then pays bonuses if they work 100, 200, 300 or 500 hours above these minimums, according to Mayo.
These bonuses put Patton Boggs at the high end of what’s being paid to Texas associates at other firms, according to the article, which gives a detailed account of what a number of major firms with a presence in the state are handing out.
