Last Friday we reporte that the Mallesons partnership had decided to give staff a Christmas bonus, of sorts. In response to the Mallesons December Pay Run of the Milliner, we received the following comments:
Actually many of the good staff, i.e. the solicitors that are above budget are extremely mad that a 3% one off payment is being made to all staff. It is true now there is a 7k gap between graduates billing 30% of a 6 hour budget and third year lawyers billing 145% of a 6.5 hour budget and working late nights and weekends while others toddle along at 5 to enjoy their lives.
We were told the pay freeze would be reviewed based on how the firm is tracking to budget. Now we are told the firm is not tracking to budget so the pay freeze stays but everyone is getting a 3% rise. How can MSJ justify paying those below budget the same as those smashing their budgets in a GFC? It is a slap in the face to those putting in the hours to build the firm.
MSJ may be a great place to work, in terms of the people and the work we do, but that doesn’t keep junior lawyers earning less than people at other firms happy. Add to that people billing heaps so those well below budget getting the same bonsuses – seems like a recipie for losing good junior lawyers and keeping the useless pricks.
We also received the following comments on Friday:
How is your firm tracking? Is it bonus season? Let the Firm Spy know first!
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I am cynical enough to believe that the bean counters did the analysis and decided that this was the absolute minimum that they could get away with to prevent a mass mutiny next year.
It’s the bonus you have when you don’t have a bonus – more importantly, it doesn’t address any of the structural and cultural issues which they have created (by way of salary freezes) by paying lawyers who’ve been in the game almost 2 years now about 20c per week more than they’ll be giving to the bright but clueless young things coming through the door in Feb. Don’t expect that these people won’t notice this, Mallesons.
As such, they are probably wasting the money – people will still be pissed off because it just comes across as tight.
That said, this is a great sign for the industry as a whole and I predict will be the first of many such moves over coming weeks. Remains to be seen whether other firms are slightly less scrooge-like leading up to the Xmas period. I suspect some firms in particular will still be handing out lumps of coal in the stockings, though…