Do Associate Bonuses Create Perverse Incentives?

With associate bonus season knocking on the door, the question that legal observers are all asking is which big law firm will come out with their bonuses first? And how much wealth will it bring to this year’s batch of young lawyers?

But perhaps therealquestion lawyers should be asking themselves is whether the whole associate bonus system isn’t in need of some serious change.

Stephen Gillers, a law professor at NYU School of Law, laid out for Big Law Business some reasons why he feels the bonuses send “all the wrong messages” to associates and are what he ...