Quinn Emanuel has long had a complicated relationship with associate compensation and the levers attached to it. The firm’s 2,100-hour floor to access market-rate bonuses is above average, and through the years, the firm has played with the requirements for associates to take home their full bonus including, in 2015 notoriously adding a marketing project requirement and, in 2018, removing travel time from what can count for bonuses. Now, though, comes news that is simply and unambiguously good for associates, Quinn Emanuel is revamping its pro bono bonus credit in a way that materially improves the deal for lawyers who throw themselves into public interest work.
Previously, pro bono hours at Quinn competed for space inside a 100-hour non-billable “bucket” that also included other creditable categories like recruiting and client pitches. That changes now. Under the new policy, pro bono hours get their own dedicated track, up to 200 hours of pro bono work will count toward associates’ bonus hour totals, completely separate from, and in addition to, the existing 100-hour bucket.
Marc Greenwald, a trial partner at Quinn and partner in charge of its New York pro bono practice, explained the mechanics of what was essentially a structural problem with the old system to Law.com. “Previously, the credit that associates were getting towards bonuses, pro bono went into what we called our 100-hour bucket, which was a bucket of categories for which they would get credit towards bonuses, up to 100 hours, that included other things,” he said. “So, [for] an associate who did 100 hours of other work, basically there was no incremental credit for the pro bono they were doing, so what this does is takes pro bono completely out of that bucket and gives them credit.”
Greenwald was also careful to note that the 200-hour cap is itself a floor, not a ceiling, in appropriate circumstances. “We have always extended the cap, even the [previous] 100-hour bucket cap, in extraordinary, unusual cases. We recognize that a case like the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case required lawyers to work extreme amounts of hours, so we extended the cap in that case,” he said. “There’s not going to be a policy in terms of how often managing partners can extend the cap, but in the right cases they will be authorized to do so.”
The reference to the Abrego Garcia case is notable context. Quinn Emanuel has been among the firms doing real work on immigration-related matters since the Trump administration wrongfully deported Abrego Garcia to an El Salvador prison and then refused to facilitate his return.
As for what associates will make of this shift, Greenwald (rightfully) seems confident. “Associates are going to be excited when they find out about our change to our bonus policy, because people were committed to doing these cases, winning these cases, and if they didn’t get an incremental bump in bonus, they were OK with that, but they’d love to get a bigger bonus.”
The bonus restructuring isn’t the only announcement. Quinn is also hiring a full-time pro bono counsel, a new position that will report to Greenwald and oversee the firm’s pro bono work. The rationale is a familiar one at growing firms: when an operation gets big enough, part-time stewardship by busy partners isn’t sufficient.
“As we’ve grown, we’ve professionalized, and having the pro bono practice run by partners who are also practicing their commercial cases meant that it wasn’t getting the full attention of anyone,” Greenwald said. “I’ve got relationships with a number of legal service providers, and I try and focus on those that will be the most impactful. … But it would be helpful if we had someone whose full-time job it was to run this practice, make sure we have the right relationships, the right opportunities, so that we could really professionalize this role across the firm.”
Greenwald also framed pro bono as a professional development pipeline, not just a public service obligation. “We’re very committed to professionalizing and making sure that we are providing our associates the best opportunities to get the trial experience, and pro bono can be really a great way to do that.” This is a pitch that resonates at a firm that has long marketed itself partly on the premise that associates get real courtroom experience earlier than they would at many other Biglaw shops.
Quinn is hardly the first firm to expand what counts toward bonus hour requirements, and the trend over the past several years has generally, though not uniformly, moved toward more generosity. Orrick, for example, built one of the most expansive policies in the industry, crediting training, DEI work, business development, innovation, and even up to 40 hours of actual unplugged downtime toward its 1,950-hour baseline. Goodwin allows pro bono plus up to 100 hours of “Culture & Innovation” activities. Sheppard Mullin counts unlimited pro bono and 75 hours of firm creditable time once the billable target is met. And the DEI-hours-as-billables wave of 2020-21 brought in well over a dozen firms extending credit for diversity work, including Baker McKenzie at a market-leading 125 hours.
Not all the movement has been in the associate-friendly direction, of course. Linklaters recently capped previously unlimited pro bono credit at 400 hours. One unnamed firm, covered here in early 2023, quietly buried a new 100-hour pro bono cap in a handbook update without formal announcement, provoking justified fury among associates who had structured their workloads around the prior unlimited policy. And then there’s the King & Spalding “productive hours” expansion announced last summer — the firm requiring 2,400 total “all-in” hours alongside the existing 1,950-hour billable threshold.
Quinn’s announcement sits solidly on the better end of this spectrum. An independent 200-hour track for pro bono work, a new full-time pro bono counsel, and managing partner discretion to extend the cap in exceptional cases is a real and substantive commitment.
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 or Bluesky @Kathryn1
The post Quinn Emanuel Gives Pro Bono Its Own Bonus Credit appeared first on Above the Law.
Quinn Emanuel has long had a complicated relationship with associate compensation and the levers attached to it. The firm’s 2,100-hour floor to access market-rate bonuses is above average, and through the years, the firm has played with the requirements for associates to take home their full bonus including, in 2015 notoriously adding a marketing project requirement and, in 2018, removing travel time from what can count for bonuses. Now, though, comes news that is simply and unambiguously good for associates, Quinn Emanuel is revamping its pro bono bonus credit in a way that materially improves the deal for lawyers who throw themselves into public interest work.
Previously, pro bono hours at Quinn competed for space inside a 100-hour non-billable “bucket” that also included other creditable categories like recruiting and client pitches. That changes now. Under the new policy, pro bono hours get their own dedicated track, up to 200 hours of pro bono work will count toward associates’ bonus hour totals, completely separate from, and in addition to, the existing 100-hour bucket.
Marc Greenwald, a trial partner at Quinn and partner in charge of its New York pro bono practice, explained the mechanics of what was essentially a structural problem with the old system to Law.com. “Previously, the credit that associates were getting towards bonuses, pro bono went into what we called our 100-hour bucket, which was a bucket of categories for which they would get credit towards bonuses, up to 100 hours, that included other things,” he said. “So, [for] an associate who did 100 hours of other work, basically there was no incremental credit for the pro bono they were doing, so what this does is takes pro bono completely out of that bucket and gives them credit.”
Greenwald was also careful to note that the 200-hour cap is itself a floor, not a ceiling, in appropriate circumstances. “We have always extended the cap, even the [previous] 100-hour bucket cap, in extraordinary, unusual cases. We recognize that a case like the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case required lawyers to work extreme amounts of hours, so we extended the cap in that case,” he said. “There’s not going to be a policy in terms of how often managing partners can extend the cap, but in the right cases they will be authorized to do so.”
The reference to the Abrego Garcia case is notable context. Quinn Emanuel has been among the firms doing real work on immigration-related matters since the Trump administration wrongfully deported Abrego Garcia to an El Salvador prison and then refused to facilitate his return.
As for what associates will make of this shift, Greenwald (rightfully) seems confident. “Associates are going to be excited when they find out about our change to our bonus policy, because people were committed to doing these cases, winning these cases, and if they didn’t get an incremental bump in bonus, they were OK with that, but they’d love to get a bigger bonus.”
The bonus restructuring isn’t the only announcement. Quinn is also hiring a full-time pro bono counsel, a new position that will report to Greenwald and oversee the firm’s pro bono work. The rationale is a familiar one at growing firms: when an operation gets big enough, part-time stewardship by busy partners isn’t sufficient.
“As we’ve grown, we’ve professionalized, and having the pro bono practice run by partners who are also practicing their commercial cases meant that it wasn’t getting the full attention of anyone,” Greenwald said. “I’ve got relationships with a number of legal service providers, and I try and focus on those that will be the most impactful. … But it would be helpful if we had someone whose full-time job it was to run this practice, make sure we have the right relationships, the right opportunities, so that we could really professionalize this role across the firm.”
Greenwald also framed pro bono as a professional development pipeline, not just a public service obligation. “We’re very committed to professionalizing and making sure that we are providing our associates the best opportunities to get the trial experience, and pro bono can be really a great way to do that.” This is a pitch that resonates at a firm that has long marketed itself partly on the premise that associates get real courtroom experience earlier than they would at many other Biglaw shops.
Quinn is hardly the first firm to expand what counts toward bonus hour requirements, and the trend over the past several years has generally, though not uniformly, moved toward more generosity. Orrick, for example, built one of the most expansive policies in the industry, crediting training, DEI work, business development, innovation, and even up to 40 hours of actual unplugged downtime toward its 1,950-hour baseline. Goodwin allows pro bono plus up to 100 hours of “Culture & Innovation” activities. Sheppard Mullin counts unlimited pro bono and 75 hours of firm creditable time once the billable target is met. And the DEI-hours-as-billables wave of 2020-21 brought in well over a dozen firms extending credit for diversity work, including Baker McKenzie at a market-leading 125 hours.
Not all the movement has been in the associate-friendly direction, of course. Linklaters recently capped previously unlimited pro bono credit at 400 hours. One unnamed firm, covered here in early 2023, quietly buried a new 100-hour pro bono cap in a handbook update without formal announcement, provoking justified fury among associates who had structured their workloads around the prior unlimited policy. And then there’s the King & Spalding “productive hours” expansion announced last summer — the firm requiring 2,400 total “all-in” hours alongside the existing 1,950-hour billable threshold.
Quinn’s announcement sits solidly on the better end of this spectrum. An independent 200-hour track for pro bono work, a new full-time pro bono counsel, and managing partner discretion to extend the cap in exceptional cases is a real and substantive commitment.
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 or Bluesky @Kathryn1
