Inside lawyers want as much transparency about bonus distributions as possible. They want to know how decisions are made on the award of bonuses. They want to know that bonuses are awarded based on merit, not personal friendship or other non-objective criteria. When bonus allocations seem arbitrary or based on factors other than merit, dissatisfaction spreads like kudzu.
They also want some satisfaction that there is rough peer-to-peer equity, assuming performance contributions are relatively the same. Fair compensation, the burr under many saddles, means whether or not a lawyer is being paid what the lawyer’s peers make.