Another Elite Boutique Surpasses Biglaw Year-End Bonuses

It’s increasingly clear that if you’re looking for the biggest bonuses in the legal industry, you’d best start looking at elite boutiques. These small but mighty firms are throwing around bonuses that shake up everything you think you know about the top of the market.

Yesterday, Selendy Gay Elsberg announced their base bonuses for associates, and for the fifth year in a row, the firm is exceeding the prevailing market scale for Biglaw bonuses. Here’s the scale at the firm:

Class Year	SGE Year-End Base Bonus
2015+	$126,500
2016	$115,500
2017	$99,000
2018	$82,500
2019	$63,250
2020	$33,000
2021	$22,000
2022	$16,500

Yup, that’s 10% higher than the Biglaw numbers across the board. Plus, some associates will get even more, “based on a holistic assessment of performance and commitment to the firm.”

Bonuses will be paid on December 23rd. You can read the full memo on the next page.

Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of important bonus updates, so when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Matches”). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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