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Lecturer in Law Thomas C. Goldstein is quoted in an article about the changes in bonuses offered by law firms that hire Surpeme Court clerks:
At firms that have been shaken by the downturn, however, a $250,000 bonus will be hard to sell, some practitioners say. "Intuitively, it doesn't feel right to pay that kind of bonus when you are trying to make economies wherever you can at the firm," said veteran advocate Carter Phillips, managing partner at Sidley Austin's Washington office. Thomas Goldstein of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, where there have been cuts, agrees that it's tough to justify a $250,000 bonus when a firm is considering letting go a staff person paid $50,000. Because of that juxtaposition, he predicted bonuses will shrink — though he said it's too early in the hiring season to say how much. "The number of firms willing to pay that amount of money will be down."
Firms won't be sorry to wave goodbye to what Goldstein calls the "incredible escalation" that the $250,000 bonus represents. Even before the recession, firms were grumbling about it because of a recurring pattern: Some clerks grab the bonus, work at the firm for a year or three, then skip off to academia with loans paid off and kids' tuition in the bank. "Firms are going to be more interested in clerks staying around and practicing law," Clement said.
"If I am going to spend that kind of money," Goldstein said, "I am going to ask whether this person will be with us for a while."