Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has paid out bonuses to fee-earners yesterday, this year around a week earlier than usual, due to the national COVID-19 lockdown.

Update 26 March, 12:10: L&L Partners had also paid out its partial bonus early before its standard bonus time of 31 March. “We closed our offices from mid-day 16th on account of Covid-19 and therefore it made sense for us to disburse bonus on 18th March,” commented senior partner Mohit Saraf. “Bonus is generally paid by the end of the financial year. This year the firm has done well and therefore our bonus payout has been better than previous years.”

Update 26 March, 16:38: Juris Corp has paid support staff salary in advance. “This uncertain situation is likely to have financial implications on everyone. Juris Corp has put in place a full pay for the support staff whether under a work from home arrangement or not. The Firm decided to advance monthly payment to its support staff, two-weeks before the month-end, to help and support them during the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic,” Juris Corp said in a statement. “The firm hopes the pay can help alleviate some of the pressures amongst other challenges. The Firm’s primary focus being the welfare of its lawyers and staff, is premised on its unswerving belief that people matter most, in a Firm, through good and bad times.”

Update 21:19: Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas has also followed suit, with managing partners Pallavi Shroff and Akshay Chudasama commenting in a statement: “Today, SAM & Co. released variable pay to all its lawyers, as scheduled and without any retention or reduction. In fact, despite the difficult times, most lawyers have achieved over 100% of their variable pay entitlements, with some lawyers even achieving 200% - something that we are very proud of.” The bonus was “performance linked and total payout is higher than last year”, added a SAM partner.

Cyril Shroff commented: “We want to reward people fairly for the work they did. We want them to feel secure.”

According to the usual schedule, bonuses should only have been paid out around 31 March 2020.

Part of CAM’s bonus is paid in Diwali, with the balance paid in March.

Bonuses paid this time had not been reduced and were in fact “slightly higher” - around 5% - above last year’s bonus payouts, said Shroff.

One fee-earner confirmed that bonuses had been paid without the firm withholding any parts, despite the terrible global economic outlook.

Nearly the entire firm, as many others, have been working from home since early last week.

Update 19:18: Also check out this rather slick animation of CAM’s logo we have been sent, which also includes an important corona-related message:

Photo by Frederic Bisson.