{"id":100839,"date":"2025-01-17T13:02:51","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T21:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/01\/17\/biglaw-firm-learning-the-hard-way-its-best-to-be-straightforward-with-associates\/"},"modified":"2025-01-17T13:02:51","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T21:02:51","slug":"biglaw-firm-learning-the-hard-way-its-best-to-be-straightforward-with-associates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/01\/17\/biglaw-firm-learning-the-hard-way-its-best-to-be-straightforward-with-associates\/","title":{"rendered":"Biglaw Firm Learning The Hard Way It\u2019s Best To Be Straightforward With Associates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Proskauer finally tells associates how many hours they have to bill to get bonuses.<br \/>\nThe post Biglaw Firm Learning The Hard Way It\u2019s Best To Be Straightforward With Associates appeared first on Above the Law.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1079051\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/associate-sad-upset-bonus-money-300x200.jpg?resize=300%2C200&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"1079050\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" title=\"\">When <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2025\/01\/biglaw-firm-springs-retroactive-hours-requirement-for-bonuses-on-associates\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">last we checked in with Proskauer<\/a> they were doing associates dirty. Despite not formally having an hours requirement to receive year-end bonuses, some associates found themselves with nothing but coal in their stocking from the firm. Why didn\u2019t they get the cash they were expecting? Well, they didn\u2019t meet the hours requirement \u2014 by as little as 3 hours! You know, that hours requirement that doesn\u2019t formally exist\u2026 (According to tipsters, this year isn\u2019t the first time the firm pulled this particular move.)<\/p>\n<p>Now some insiders are reporting back what\u2019s been going down since the story broke. Unsurprisingly morale is not great \u2014 even associate that made the invisible hours threshold last year feel blindsided by the firm\u2019s policy. And the firm leadership has been forced by the negative publicity to acknowledge the standard they\u2019ve been holding associates to.<\/p>\n<p>From a tipster:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>After your article was posted, literally 9 minutes later, we received an email for a virtual town hall to take place the next day at noon. Now we have a 2000 hour requirement for the current fiscal year\u2026 which started in November.<\/p>\n<p>They say it can change from year to year but they will tell us ahead of time (yeah right, we\u2019re not going to believe that shit anymore)<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s vile and I can\u2019t wait to leave this firm. Hope they enjoy the millions they make from squeezing every last ounce of humanity from the firm that used to be a good place to work. Morale is very very low. Would not be surprised if they start hemorrhaging associates. Maybe that\u2019s their intention.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Oof, doesn\u2019t sound like Proskauer is a fun place to work right now. Maybe they\u2019ll take the hint and start being straightforward with associates.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong><em><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-766490 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-150x150.jpg?resize=150%2C150&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Kathryn Rubino Headshot\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" title=\"\">Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/1XC11QhFCWxWr4NQrk2sEA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of <a href=\"https:\/\/legaltalknetwork.com\/podcasts\/thinking-like-a-lawyer\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#234842574b515a4d6342414c5546574b464f42540d404c4e1c505641494640571e7a4c5651061113604c4f564e4d\" target=\"_blank&quot;\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div id=\"shs-form-918f9998-ad56-4438-b7e2-7d3c4676b70e\" class=\"\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/bonus-time-Biglaw-bonuses-money-law-firm-bonus.jpg?resize=600%2C468&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Bonus Time\" width=\"600\" height=\"468\" title=\"\"><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Proskauer finally tells associates how many hours they have to bill to get bonuses. The post Biglaw Firm Learning The Hard Way It\u2019s Best To Be Straightforward With Associates appeared first on Above the Law. When last we checked in with Proskauer they were doing associates dirty. Despite not formally having an hours requirement to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":100840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law","category-legal_matters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/associate-sad-upset-bonus-money-plOgzz.jpeg?fit=1698%2C1131&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}