With Monday’s announcement that its associates will get fatter year-end bonuses in 2012 than they did in 2011, Cravath, Swaine & Moore cut through some of the gloom that has clouded the financial outlook for large law firms of late.
The question now is whether Cravath’s peers will mimic it in doling out extra compensation as they have in the pastor pull back in light of the modest revenue growth most industry experts are expecting this year.
As of Tuesday, few were rushing to follow suit.
Indeed, The Am Law Daily‘s calls for comment on year-end bonuses to a dozen Am Law 100 firmsDavis, Polk & Wardwell; Kaye Scholer; Kirkland & Ellis; Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Proskauer Rose; Ropes & Gray; Shearman & Sterling; Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Sullivan & Cromwell; and Weil, Gotshal & Mangeswent unreturned, yielded a “no comment,” or elicited a response that it was premature to discuss the subject.
