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Lawyer Pay

$1M-plus bonuses will be paid to ‘multiple associates’ at this prominent law firm

By Debra Cassens Weiss

December 11, 2024, 10:10 am CST

“Multiple associates” at Boies Schiller Flexner are receiving bonuses of $1 million or more this year, thanks to a formula based on law firm contributions and revenue generation, according to an internal memo obtained by several publications.

In addition, the memo said, “numerous associates—including some very junior associates—received bonuses far in excess of the very top of the market, including several who received bonuses of $300,000 or more.”

Bloomberg Law broke the news. Stories followed by Law360, Law.com and Above the Law, which published the full memo.

More than 30 mostly BigLaw firms have announced that they are paying year-end and special bonuses that match the schedule sent by Milbank. The totals range from $21,000 to $140,000, based on associate year.

In all, more than 95% of Boies Schiller associates are receiving bonuses on a par with or higher than market-rate bonuses, the memo said. Those who received less “invested material time in one or more contingency cases that have not yet paid out,” the memo said.

Boies Schiller announced in 2020 that it was changing its bonus structure to offer associates a choice between market-rate bonuses and bonuses based on a formula with a revenue-share component The outsized bonuses are being paid to many associates who chose the revenue formula.

Associates were split about 50-50 in their initial choices, Matthew L. Schwartz, Boies Schiller’s managing partner and chairman-elect, told Bloomberg Law.

Since then, he said, the vast majority of associates chose formula bonuses. Now, the firm no longer allows incoming associates to choose the market scale. The market-rate system will end when current associates who chose that option are promoted to partner.

Schwartz told Law360 that the firm’s formula bonus rewards lawyers who worked incredibly hard for clients.

“Sometimes that is the result of contingency or other cases earning a premium; sometimes it is related to business generation; and sometimes it’s tied to the number of hours worked,” Schwartz said. “We ask our associates to take on significant responsibilities early in their careers, and we’re more than happy to reward them by sharing in the upside of the returns the firm receives as a result.”

Boies Schiller is taking two other steps to attract top-quality associates. Any current associate who successfully recruits a lateral associate will earn a $25,000 referral bonus after both remain employed there for six months.

In addition, the firm will pay a $150,000 signing bonus for any associate who joins the firm directly from a clerkship with a federal court at the district or appellate level. A new associate with multiple qualifying clerkships will get a $175,000 hiring bonus.

The new clerkship bonus schedule “puts Boies Schiller ahead of competitors by at least $25,000,” Law.com reports.

Bloomberg Law reports that Boies Schiller “is in a position to give higher bonuses after turning around its financial trajectory.” The publication cited American Lawyer data showing that the firm earned $246 million in revenue in 2023 following a down year in 2022 when revenue decreased to $220 million.

Firms paying market-rate bonuses are listed on Above the Law’s bonus scorecard.

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Ethics

District attorney ‘paid little attention to the five-alarm fire’ in high-profile case and should be disbarred, panel says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

September 16, 2024, 11:07 am CDT

A Colorado district attorney should be disbarred mostly for her “absence at the helm” in a high-profile murder case in which prosecutors failed to turn over sufficient expert witness information to the defense, leading to the exclusion of experts, according to a Colorado disciplinary hearing board.

In a Sept. 10 decision, the board recommended disbarment for District Attorney Linda Stanley of the 11th Judicial District in Colorado. She has the option of appealing the order.

The Denver Post (via the Legal Profession Blog), the Associated Press and Law360 have coverage of the decision.

The disciplinary board said Stanley failed to adequately oversee the murder prosecution of Barry Morphew. She also initiated a baseless domestic-abuse investigation of the presiding judge who barred many of the prosecution’s expert witnesses.

Morphew’s wife disappeared on a bike ride in May 2020. The prosecution dropped the charges in April 2022, nine days before the scheduled start of the trial. Morphew has said he is innocent.

Stanley sought the probe of the judge after hearing that his ex-wife was an advocate of for domestic-abuse victims. The ex-wife told Stanley’s investigator that she had never been abused.

Stanley also made improper remarks to the media in the Morphew case and a fatal child-abuse case, the board found. Stanley had said she thought that her remarks in the second case were off the record.

Stanley’s “absence at the helm” in the Morphew case ended with it “running aground,” the board said in an opinion by Presiding Disciplinary Judge Bryon M. Large.

Discovery issues included a massive amount of information that the sheriff’s office delivered on a hard drive to prosecutors without a useful organization. A hard drive of the information was hand delivered to the defense. But bandwidth issues made integrating the material into an e-discovery platform difficult.

In addition, the lead prosecutor on the case said he felt taxed and overwhelmed. He resigned in October 2021. A replacement agreed to work only part time and had trouble accessing discovery information online.

Stanley “was aware, from the time the sheriff’s office delivered to her office a ten-terabyte hard drive of information, that the sheer volume of disorganized, unlabeled discovery promised to pose a problem for the prosecution,” the hearing board said. “The prosecution never truly had a command of the universe of discovery.”

After the lead prosecutor resigned, Stanley failed to designate a new lead counsel, creating confusion.

“Lawyers pointed us to no one—or worse still, to one another—when asked to identify lead counsel,” the hearing board said.

Stanley also failed her team when it became apparent that it was struggling to compile expert-witness information before a deadline and when she learned that the defense was seeking to exclude expert testimony because of failings, according to the hearing board.

Although Stanley “was aware of these very serious developments, she paid little attention to the five-alarm fire and instead relied on [two other lawyers] to extinguish the blaze,” the hearing board majority said.

Stanley’s “failure to ensure her team interviewed experts, reviewed expert reports and statements, and disclosed all facts and data underlying those statements represents an abdication of her supervisory duties,” the majority concluded.

Stanley’s “failure to rise to the moment when so much was at stake” cannot be overlooked, the majority said.

A dissenting panel member, Sherry A. Caloia, would have imposed a suspension of two and a half years rather than disbarment. She expressed concern that the Morphew case “has undergone an extensive amount of Monday-morning quarterbacking.”

Stanley “put very capable and experienced lawyers in charge of the Morphew case,” and she relied on their expertise, Caloia said.

Stanley is a 2010 graduate of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law who previously worked as a police officer and a truck driver. When she took office, she said it was buried in a backlog of cases and hampered by prosecutorial vacancies.

Steve Jensen, Stanley’s lawyer, told the Denver Post that he and his client disagree with the decision.

“This was a hard-fought trial but we do not think that Ms. Stanley’s conduct deserves disbarment, period,” he said. “And I believe Ms. Stanley is a good person and also an ethical attorney.”

Jensen told the Associated Press that she was a district attorney in a rural area and didn’t have much experience in high-profile cases, she had fewer resources than prosecutors in urban areas, and she had a difficult time finding prosecutors to work on the case.

Jensen told the Associated Press that he and Stanley were considering whether to appeal.

A produce wholesaler in South Florida allegedly hired a hitman to take out a business rival but the “killer” was actually a federal agent.

According to a criminal complaint, a confidential informant in February approached the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to say Makram Khashman asked if they would kill a business rival. The informant allegedly told Khashman they wouldn’t do it but knew someone who would. Instead, the informant went to the feds.

The informant and an undercover ATF agent met with Khashman on Feb. 29 at a parking lot in the city of Plantation, documents stated. Khashman, wearing a polo shirt with a logo for Garden Fresh Produce LLC., got into the car with the two others. The agent said he heard Khashman “had a problem,” the compliant said. Khashman allegedly described it as a “big problem,” saying his intended target had “taken over a million dollars and a business worth three million dollars” from him. The business rival had put Khashman and his family “in the streets,” causing him to lose his house, according to the complaint.