Slaughters hesitates over annual firmwide bonus payout

Slaughter and May is still considering whether or not to pay out its annual firmwide bonus, due at the end of the year. The magic circle firm is in discussions about whether it will pay the bonus - due to both fee earners and support staff - at all, or whether to make changes to the system. A number of options are under discussion about the package, should the firm decide to go ahead and make the bonus payment. One option includes moving away from the flat rate system introduced in 2006, which saw the firm set itself apart from many of its City rivals by avoiding use of hourly targets. Instead it introduced a flat 15% payout for all fee earners, changing this last November when it opted to give all fee earners a bonus equating to 10% of salary, with support staff receiving 2.5% of salary.

Slaughters hesitates over annual firmwide bonus payout legalweek.com Fri, Oct 23, 2009