Biglaw Firm Does Away With Profit-Sharing Bonus Due To Poor Financial Performance
This certainly isn't a good sign.
We haven’t spoken about bonuses in a while, and considering some of the doom and gloom that’s happening in the legal profession, maybe that’s a good thing.
Don’t believe us? Get a load of this: Thanks to plummeting profits, one firm is doing away with its profit share bonus for all non-partner employees.
Taylor Wessing — a U.K. firm that brought in $578,914,000 gross revenue in 2021, putting it in 102nd place on the 2022 Global 200 — has offered a salary-based 5% profit share bonus to all employees for the past two years thanks to its outstanding performance. This year, the firm is stepping away from that bonus due to a poor financial showing.
Here are some additional details from Law.com International:
Taylor Wessing’s profit in the U.K. fell 12% for the financial year 2022/23 compared to last year’s figure—although U.K. and international revenues have both climbed up.
After a considerable 32% increase in the firm’s profits in the U.K. last year—in which Taylor Wessing made a record breaking profit of £93 million [~$118,993,500]—this year the firm made a profit of £81.7 million [~$104,535,150].
The firm saw a 4.4% increase in global revenue to £439 million [~$561,700,500], as well as a 3.5% uplift in U.K. revenue to £227.1 million [~$290,697,084].
Shane Gleghorn, the firm’s U.K. managing partner, told Law.com International that its record financial growth “was always going to be difficult to replicate this year.” The site estimates that profits per equity partner at the firm would be about £809,000 (~$1,036,778), nearly 8% less than last year, when that figure reached £877,000 (~$1,123,923).
Hopefully Taylor Wessing will be able to offer its profit share bonus to all employees again in the future. And here’s hoping that Biglaw firms in the U.S. won’t be forced to take their generous bonuses down a notch due to the turbulent economy that’s forced some firms to conduct layoffs and defer their incoming first-year associate classes.
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Taylor Wessing Scraps Profit Share Bonus Scheme After UK Profits Fall [Law.com International]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.
