Huse speaks with Law 360 regarding "Law Firms Set To Make It Snow With Bigger Holiday Bonuses"

Law360 quoted Huse in the recent article “Law Firms Set To Make It Snow With Bigger Holiday Bonuses?", where she discusses what 2015 holiday bonuses for attorneys. Excerpts from the article are below. To read the entire article, click here.

Law Firms Set To Make It Snow With Bigger Holiday Bonuses By Lisa Ryan Law360, New York (November 24, 2015, 1:38 PM ET) - BigLaw firms are gearing up to dole out hefty associate bonuses, likely surpassing last year’s impressive paydays in an attempt to retain top talent in an increasingly competitive associate market, experts say.

Last year, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP set the bonus scale early in the season, ranging from $15,000 for class of 2012 associates to $100,000 for the classes of 2006 and 2007. That standard kicked off a closely watched arms race, with Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP, Simpson and others rushing to up the ante for midtenure associates.

Experts say last year’s bonus race was certainly fierce — but this year, it will be even more intense. The market to recruit and retain associates is more competitive than ever, and as a result, firms will be fighting tooth and nail to keep them happy.

And BigLaw firms can afford to shell out these hefty bonuses. The legal sector is having a great year, even if it isn’t quite soaring to the same revenue heights as it was last year, according to Jill Huse, a partner at Society 54 LLC.

According to a Nov. 10 report from Citi Private Bank, law firm revenue increased modestly in the first three quarters of the year, but a decrease in productivity and increased expenses have caused the industry to lag slightly behind last year’s figures. The legal sector in the U.S. saw a 3.6 percent increase in revenue as it entered the fourth quarter of 2015, but at the same time last year, the industry’s revenue was up by 4 percent, the data showed.

“Demand is increasing — just not as quickly as most firms would like. It’s still slow and steady, but in-house counsel are more willing to loosen up on the tight holds they have on budgets and they are more freely using outside counsel than they were,” Huse said.

Firms are combating the fact that they aren’t experiencing growth as quickly as they’d like by actually increasing their rates, Huse added.

That’s one of the reasons why the financial success that firms are seeing will trickle down to their associates in the form of holiday bonuses, according to Huse.