{"id":161612,"date":"2026-08-27T14:41:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T22:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/08\/27\/biglaws-talent-wars-bring-signing-bonuses-back-into-style\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T14:41:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T22:41:30","slug":"biglaws-talent-wars-bring-signing-bonuses-back-into-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/08\/27\/biglaws-talent-wars-bring-signing-bonuses-back-into-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Biglaw\u2019s Talent Wars Bring Signing Bonuses Back Into Style"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><u>Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/tag\/quote-of-the-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>This really is supply and demand. If the demand is there, then we\u2019re going to continue seeing the signing bonuses. And then when the market cools off and associates have fewer options, firms won\u2019t have to offer the signing bonuses.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em><span><i>\u2014<\/i><\/span> <strong>Stephanie Biderman, a partner in the associate practice of Major, Lindsey &amp; Africa, in comments reported by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abajournal.com\/news\/article\/is-lockstep-associate-pay-falling-out-of-favor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ABA Journal,<\/a> concerning <\/strong>the recent resurgence of signing bonuses for lateral associates. <strong><em>As firms compete for talent in high-demand practice areas, some associates are once again being offered extra cash to make the jump. But as Biderman notes, those lucrative offers may disappear just as quickly when the lateral market cools.<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Staci-Zaretsky.jpg?resize=150%2C100&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66762\" title=\"\"><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/author\/staci-zaretsky\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Staci Zaretsky<\/a> is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to <a href=\"mailto:staci@abovethelaw.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/stacizaretsky.bsky.social\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Bluesky<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stacizaretsky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">X\/Twitter<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@stacizaretsky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Threads<\/a>, or connect with her on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/staci-zaretsky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2026\/08\/biglaws-talent-wars-bring-signing-bonuses-back-into-style\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Biglaw\u2019s Talent Wars Bring Signing Bonuses Back Into Style<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-single__featured-image post-single__featured-image--medium alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/12\/signing-bonus-money-GettyImages-185271804-300x168.jpg?resize=300%2C168&#038;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><u>Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/tag\/quote-of-the-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>This really is supply and demand. If the demand is there, then we\u2019re going to continue seeing the signing bonuses. And then when the market cools off and associates have fewer options, firms won\u2019t have to offer the signing bonuses.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em><i>\u2014<\/i> <strong>Stephanie Biderman, a partner in the associate practice of Major, Lindsey &amp; Africa, in comments reported by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abajournal.com\/news\/article\/is-lockstep-associate-pay-falling-out-of-favor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ABA Journal,<\/a> concerning <\/strong>the recent resurgence of signing bonuses for lateral associates. <strong><em>As firms compete for talent in high-demand practice areas, some associates are once again being offered extra cash to make the jump. But as Biderman notes, those lucrative offers may disappear just as quickly when the lateral market cools.<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Staci-Zaretsky.jpg?resize=150%2C100&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66762\" title=\"\"><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/author\/staci-zaretsky\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Staci Zaretsky<\/a> is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#c8bbbca9aba188a9aaa7beadbca0ada4a9bfe6aba7a5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/stacizaretsky.bsky.social\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Bluesky<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stacizaretsky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">X\/Twitter<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@stacizaretsky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Threads<\/a>, or connect with her on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/staci-zaretsky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature,\u00a0Quote of the Day. This really is supply and demand. If the demand is there, then we\u2019re going to continue seeing the signing bonuses. And then when the market cools off and associates have fewer options, firms won\u2019t have to offer the signing bonuses. \u2014 Stephanie Biderman, a partner [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":161613,"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-161612","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\/2026\/08\/Staci-Zaretsky-iYkChb.jpg?fit=150%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161612","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=161612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}