Hill Dickinson sets up bonus scheme

The Liverpool-based firm will appraise individual performances over the next two months, taking into account factors such as business and client development.

Around 70 per cent of the bonus will be allocated by factors such as performance on chargeable hours and recovery rates against firm and team targets. These will be assessed after the end of the financial year.

Hill Dickinson’s fixed-share partners and senior associates have been able to receive bonuses for some time, but this is the first time paralegals and newly qualified lawyers can top up their pay, as the firm seeks to catch up with its peers.

Managing partner Peter Jackson stressed that the scheme had been kept ”fairly traditional”.

”We haven’t sought to be more radical and directly reward corporate social responsibility, for example,” he said. “We’re one of the last major firms to come to the party, so it’s one step at a time.”

The firm is expecting around 50 per cent of fee-earners to qualify for the scheme and has set aside around 5 per cent of its fee-earner wage bill for the ­payouts.