Christmas comes early at some firms
Linklaters and Addleshaw Goddard are the latest firms to pay staff an extra bonus for their hard work during the pandemic.
Linklaters is giving a one-off payment of 5% of salary to all staff worldwide, except the partners. The bonus is being paid to thank staff, and is in addition to other salary reviews and performance-related bonuses, and does not replace them.
RollOnFriday understands that the firm's UK secretaries who accept the voluntary redundancy programme will still be entitled to receive the bonus.
The 5% bonus from Linklaters mirrors payments dished out by Clifford Chance and Herbert Smith Freehills to their staff, and piles more pressure on other City firms to reward their staff with a Covid-bonus.
Addleshaw Goddard is giving a bonus of £1,500 (or equivalent outside of the UK) to all its staff, except partners. The one-off payment will be in addition to other annual salary and bonus reviews.
"The last 12 months have been like no other but even with all the competing demands on people, the teamwork and spirit shown by everyone in our business has been incredible," said Nikki Lawson, Addleshaw Goddard's HR Director.
Lawson added that the payment was being made as a "thank you" for the way "everyone has responded to the exceptional challenges we have faced and for the support given to our clients".
Comments
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If Addleshaw can pay a bonus like this then why can’t other firms ????
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...because AG starts from a very low pay base, obvs. Lots of the people there seem to think it's a Yorkshire firm with satellite offices.
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I get that it’s better than nothing but a £1,500 is Mickey Mouse level when you compare it to Investment Banking bonuses
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£1.5k gross is just offensive.
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Could be worse. One particular SC firm put in place 80% salaries last summer and still hasn't paid it back unlike others..
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Anonymous 26 March 21 08:32
that is because it is.... manchester and leeds have been sparing London’s blushes since the last crash
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£1,500 is meaningful for the lower paid staff.
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Shame they couldn't have used this money instead of making people redundant
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@ Richard III - Is it though?
Giving the good members of staff a small bonus while losing Lazy Barry from the postroom is a pretty fair trade.
Or would you rather everyone good went unrewarded, moaned to RoF that they weren't getting an auto-bonus like the "rest of the market", we had a comment thread here telling them to stop being whiny bitches, and fat lazy Barry continued to eat cans of chunky soup with his feet up on a post-bag all day?
Linklaters have made the right call here.
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Exactly - it starts from a low pay base because it has to because it’s less profitable than other international firms so percentage wise it’s the same difference
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Any big international or City boutique firm with even vaguely positive numbers that doesn't match the 5% for everyone special bonus is going to look pretty bad and probably lose some talent.
Even being slightly up in revenue is going to translate into a lot more profit going to partner pockets, because costs are waaaay down. So pony up and don't be shy. Or else.
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What it does say staff what about the contracters as well who kept the firms running
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Over to you the firms who talk the talk ......
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@ Anon, 9.49
given what the staff in most post rooms have been doing for the past year, the sweeping generalisation and targeting of a support function is so wrong. Can’t see many lawyers venturing in to offices to check snail mail, etc.
if they have their feet up, it’s because useless qualified pricks aren’t doing enough work to filter down and keep them busy.
there are plenty of good people who are not getting bonuses after all of this.
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@14:15 shut up Barry, nobody has any sympathy after the s*** you pulled.
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Waiting for the moment when SPB finally realise they look like utter tightwad bastards and pay out this one-off bonus too.
I fear I will be waiting for a very, very long time.
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@ Facts 26 March 21 09:09
pinsents?!?
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@ overworked SPB
Sorry duck but you chose to work there despite all the warnings on here.
If you hadn't heard of the Hammond's Shoe Shitter, you have now...
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Any news on the Slater and Gordon bonus?
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Got a week’s pay at Eversheds. Better than a kick in the teeth but not better than £1,500.
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Be interesting to see if the US firms follow suit......
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Anonymous 26 March 21 09:49
Except all the backroom staff have kept the offices ticking over whilst the fee earners stayed at home safe and sound. And the redundancies were all 4+ pqe real estate fee earners....
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This looks generous compared to the £1000 Ashurst are “awarding”.
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I'd be amazed if SPB pays anything of this nature to its staff. We're still waiting for a decision on whether we are getting all of last year's lost pay refunded to us despite the firm having been majorly busy for almost all of the last year. They'll no doubt find some way of screwing us over on that as well never mind giving us a Covid bonus