Bravo for Allen & Overy, whose London office has taken a first dramatic step (see the story in Legal Week) to increasing transparency and thus predictability in the calculation of year-end bonuses by directly tying the calculation of year end payouts to equity-partner profits. Those of us sitting in New York can only dream of such a thing as we wait for the local cartel to determine this year's bonus-structure - which, Lawcruiter predicts, will be virtually indistingushable from prior years insofar as (a) all of the leading "BIGLAW" players will publish virtually identical numbers for the same class years and (b) each of these firms will not publish the internal guidelines for determining how much of that amount each member actually receives.
I really don't want to be cynical. It just seems to me that the endless discussion about how compensation relates to associate satisfaction could be made a lot more honest if law firms are more transparent about the criteria for determing compensation differentials. A&O's idea goes a long way in this direction.
Now if I was really cynical - I would wonder, when payouts were actually made, whether the actual amount trousered by associates were significantly higher or lower than they would have received under the old "non-transparent" system...
