diff --git a/spacy/_ml.py b/spacy/_ml.py
index 47f5c545e..3b96a69b5 100644
--- a/spacy/_ml.py
+++ b/spacy/_ml.py
@@ -30,6 +30,10 @@ from . import util
 import numpy
 import io
 
+# TODO: Unset this once we don't want to support models previous models.
+import thinc.neural._classes.layernorm
+thinc.neural._classes.layernorm.set_compat_six_eight(True)
+
 VECTORS_KEY = 'spacy_pretrained_vectors'
 
 @layerize