{"id":137099,"date":"2025-11-19T06:58:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T14:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/11\/19\/bonus-news-drops-as-firm-engages-in-merger-talks\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T06:58:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T14:58:32","slug":"bonus-news-drops-as-firm-engages-in-merger-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/11\/19\/bonus-news-drops-as-firm-engages-in-merger-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Bonus News Drops As Firm Engages In Merger Talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cadwalader hasn\u2019t enjoyed the smoothest 2025. <\/p>\n

Key partners defected<\/a>, the firm announced a snap leadership shakeup<\/a>, and finally admitted they\u2019re looking for a merger proposal with Alston & Bird<\/a>. And that \u201cTrump administration capitulation<\/a>\u201d story didn\u2019t help. But, as the year winds down, firm lawyers can look past 2025 and comfort themselves with a tidy bonus match.<\/p>\n

\n

At 6:02, the co-managing partners sent out the memo laying out the following baseline bonuses:<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Class Year<\/strong><\/td>\nYear-End Bonus<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2025<\/td>\n$15,000 (pro-rated)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2024<\/td>\n$20,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2023<\/td>\n$30,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2022<\/td>\n$57,500<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2021<\/td>\n$75,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2020<\/td>\n$90,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2019<\/td>\n$105,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2018 and 2017<\/td>\n$115,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n

For those recording 2200 hours or more throughout the year, their year-end bonus will be 120% of the amounts listed above.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not all. Cadwalader is also matching special bonuses according to the below schedule.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Year<\/strong><\/td>\nSpecial Bonus<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2025<\/td>\n$6,000 (pro-rated)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2024<\/td>\n$6,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2023<\/td>\n$10,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2022<\/td>\n$15,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2021<\/td>\n$20,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2020<\/td>\n$25,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2019<\/td>\n$25,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2018 and 2017<\/td>\n$25,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The bonuses will be paid out by the last February pay period.<\/p>\n

Not bad for a firm potentially going to the (Alston &) Birds.<\/p>\n

(Full memo on the next page.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The post Bonus News Drops As Firm Engages In Merger Talks<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cadwalader hasn\u2019t enjoyed the smoothest 2025. <\/p>\n

Key partners defected<\/a>, the firm announced a snap leadership shakeup<\/a>, and finally admitted they\u2019re looking for a merger proposal with Alston & Bird<\/a>. And that \u201cTrump administration capitulation<\/a>\u201d story didn\u2019t help. But, as the year winds down, firm lawyers can look past 2025 and comfort themselves with a tidy bonus match.<\/p>\n

\n

At 6:02, the co-managing partners sent out the memo laying out the following baseline bonuses:<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Class Year<\/strong><\/td>\nYear-End Bonus<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2025<\/td>\n$15,000 (pro-rated)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2024<\/td>\n$20,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2023<\/td>\n$30,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2022<\/td>\n$57,500<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2021<\/td>\n$75,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2020<\/td>\n$90,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2019<\/td>\n$105,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2018 and 2017<\/td>\n$115,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n

But that\u2019s not all, with special bonuses available for those recording 2200 hours or more throughout the year:<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Year<\/strong><\/td>\nSpecial Bonus<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2025<\/td>\n$6,000 (pro-rated)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2024<\/td>\n$6,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2023<\/td>\n$10,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2022<\/td>\n$15,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2021<\/td>\n$20,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2020<\/td>\n$25,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2019<\/td>\n$25,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Class of 2018 and 2017<\/td>\n$25,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The bonuses will be paid out by the last February pay period.<\/p>\n

Not bad for a firm potentially going to the (Alston &) Birds.<\/p>\n

(Full memo on the next page.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

1<\/strong> 2<\/a>Next \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cadwalader hasn\u2019t enjoyed the smoothest 2025. Key partners defected, the firm announced a snap leadership shakeup, and finally admitted they\u2019re looking for a merger proposal with Alston & Bird. And that \u201cTrump administration capitulation\u201d story didn\u2019t help. But, as the year winds down, firm lawyers can look past 2025 and comfort themselves with a tidy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":137065,"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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Headshot-300x200-XRcc1W.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137099","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"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}