The U.S.-based law firm Milbank announced it will issue special bonuses of up to $25,000 for its associates and special counsel. The decision, detailed in an internal memo on Monday, follows a permanent salary increase implemented by the firm in June.
Milbank has established a pattern of providing mid-year compensation increases, having issued similar bonuses during the summers of 2024 and 2025. The firm, headquartered in New York, reported average profits per equity partner of $7.62 million in 2025. While typical for major corporate firms to match compensation changes to remain competitive, only a few firms, including McDermott Will & Emery, have matched Milbank’s most recent salary adjustments.
According to the internal memo, the bonuses are scaled by seniority, starting at $6,000 for first-year associates and reaching $25,000 for the most senior associates. These payments are in addition to the firm's standard year-end bonuses, which reached a maximum of $115,000 last year. The firm's base salary for first-year associates currently stands at $235,000, rising to $455,000 for eighth-year associates.
The scale of this spending is significant for the legal industry, as Milbank’s decision sets a baseline for the cost of talent in the corporate legal market. If the top 50 U.S. law firms were to match these bonuses, it would represent a combined expenditure in the hundreds of millions of dollars across the sector. For clients, including large corporations and financial institutions, these rising overhead costs often correlate with increases in hourly billing rates, which can exceed $1,500 per hour for senior associates at firms of this size.
The move establishes a precedent for "special bonuses" to become a regular expectation rather than an occasional reward for high-demand periods. This creates a high-fixed-cost environment that smaller or less profitable regional firms may struggle to replicate, potentially centralizing top-tier legal talent within a few highly profitable organizations. While Milbank has finalized its schedule, the legal industry will now monitor other major firms throughout August to see if they issue matching announcements or maintain current pay scales.