Law firm increases clerkship bonus to $105K
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has increased its clerkship signing bonus to $105,000. Clerks who complete two qualifying clerkships would get an additional $20,000 bonus.
Above the Law and Law360 had the story. On Tuesday, Above the Law published a form letter from Quinn Emanuel sent to a number of federal law clerks. Quinn Emanuel confirmed to both publications that the letter is accurate.
“It came to our attention that one of our competitors had raised bonuses, and we decided it made sense for us to match them,” name partner A. William Urquhart told Law360. “A lot of our very best associates come to us following judicial clerkships, either at the district court or circuit court level. We really are in need of additional associate help, so it made sense to us.”
This isn’t the first time the law firm has increased its signing bonus for clerks. While most other firms have not increased their signing bonuses for federal clerks past $50,000 ever since the Great Recession, Quinn Emanuel began offering a $75,000 bonus two years ago.
“We have nearly 200 lawyers who clerked for United States District Courts, Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court,” the letter says. “The experience law clerks receive is invaluable to our practice.”
Above the Law reported at the time that a couple of litigation boutiques followed in Quinn Emanuel’s footsteps back in 2016. The Denver-based boutique of Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell increased its bonus to $60,000 just a few months later. Shortly afterwards, Susman Godfrey LLP increased its own bonus to $80,000, including an additional $20,000 to those who had completed two clerkships.
