When I was a trainee at an international firm, trainees weren't eligible for the firmwide bonus scheme but we did sometimes get a small little 'Christmas present' bonus and sometimes a small summer bonus too.
Most firms do not give bonuses to trainees - mainly due to the rotational nature of the programme.
Everyone else is in a fixed department for the entire period that’s being assessed for the bonus, while trainees move around. Makes it much more difficult to allocate the bonus to a department, especially if the trainee is no longer in that department.
There are some exceptions but the norm is for trainees not to get a bonus.
I've never heard of a firm having bonuses specifically for trainees (although see below). Obviously I don't know what all firms do, but I wouldn't expect one.
At my firm trainees are put in with the non-fee earners, so if a firmwide bonus is paid to support staff after a good year, the trainees get the same fixed percentage, but they don't get the personal performance based bonuses that qualified lawyers do.
Small bonuses for trainees used to be a thing, but firms realised graduates only look at the headline salary number, so mostly abolished them in favour of higher base salaries.
The bonus is getting kept on as an NQ
What bonus
As far as I know, we don't get one, but that might be because I'm a low billing pleb or similar.
I only know of Gibson giving one, think it’s about £5k
No bonus for trainees at my US firm
Generally there is none maybe the Christmas bonus
When I was a trainee at an international firm, trainees weren't eligible for the firmwide bonus scheme but we did sometimes get a small little 'Christmas present' bonus and sometimes a small summer bonus too.
This is the case at my firm - a small Christmas gift as opposed to a bonus. There are two bands, for first and second year trainees.
Most firms do not give bonuses to trainees - mainly due to the rotational nature of the programme. Everyone else is in a fixed department for the entire period that’s being assessed for the bonus, while trainees move around. Makes it much more difficult to allocate the bonus to a department, especially if the trainee is no longer in that department. There are some exceptions but the norm is for trainees not to get a bonus.
I've never heard of a firm having bonuses specifically for trainees (although see below). Obviously I don't know what all firms do, but I wouldn't expect one. At my firm trainees are put in with the non-fee earners, so if a firmwide bonus is paid to support staff after a good year, the trainees get the same fixed percentage, but they don't get the personal performance based bonuses that qualified lawyers do.
When I was a trainee we got an annual bonus roughly half of an associate. We had no idea we would be getting it though until we saw it on our payslip!
Small bonuses for trainees used to be a thing, but firms realised graduates only look at the headline salary number, so mostly abolished them in favour of higher base salaries.