Big Law Discussions
Billable Hours

I have a utilization question: if you’re scheduled for 40 billable hours in a week but you finish the work in 30 hours you’re 75% utilized which may or may not be fine depending on ur firm.

But if you finish the work in 50 hours, youre 125% utilized but you’re going over budget (providing you don’t eat hours). How do you reconcile the 2?

Does anyone run a business in addition to their firm? I’m a solo and I’m doing pretty well with about 60-70 billable hours a month. Though that leaves a lot of downtime. Curious if anyone has any second businesses that require about 20 hours a week. Not looking for passive income or franchise ideas though.

I'm a third year plaintiff's employment law attorney and I'm looking to move to defense, preferably still in employment law. I received an offer from a midsize firm that primarily focuses on PI with little-to-no employment law practice, so I'll have a bit of a learning curve. Offer is $90k, billable hours of 2100. Is this reasonable? I'm dead-set on leaving my current job, and this would be a $20k pay increase - which makes me believe I'm leaning towards taking it for those reasons only.

Same day cancellations?
I’ve been freelancing at agency in a mostly full time capacity for a few months. Working remotely, billing hourly. They are very particular about billable time and nitpick downtime. The budget has been cut and hour reduced. I requested a schedule so we can all plan accordingly. Now I “show up” in the morning and am told there is no work. I would normally bill for 4 hours but they insist they don’t guarantee hours. I don’t even know how to respond anymore. Suggestions?

Back to averaging 10+ billable hours a day 🥲

I hate open floor plan offices. It’s challenging to focus/ be productive in open environments. No I don’t want to talk every 25 minutes to my coworkers. I want to do my job and go home. Every time you interrupt me, I have to stay here longer to hit billable hours.

2nd year ID/big box retail lit in bay area - hold on 3 more years for partnership w/ 200-250k salary? Currently at 150k after bonus. Or lateral to commercial/business lit for 125k year salary and bottom of totem pole?

Equity partner is the goal, worried about capping myself with billable rate of ~250

Honest discussion about burn out: it is with you for the long run.
I burnt out at my last job and the job before that and now I’m at a really good firm that has no set billable hours and a really manageable workload, but it’s still difficult to get any work done. It will take a long time to fully recover from burn out.

10 billable hours this week so far… is this normal for a first year associate during this time of the year? (Transactional)

Wondering what average billable hours requirements are for associates and paralegals heading into 2022?

Wondering what average billable hours are for 2022.

Name your firm and how many billable hours qualify you for the full bonus amount.

I work for a boutique firm in a large west coast city. No clue what it costs or means if I’d make partner. How does the process usually work? I’m currently a senior associate. Been here a bit more than a year. Not sure if I want to stay and grind the billable hours or try to move to in-house or government law in the same industry.

Any tips for coming back from maternity leave? Getting thrown into 12 hour billable days starting day 1 and I feel like my brain is melting.

Anyone else absolutely *loathe* being assigned new client matters at the end of the month when you know your billable time won’t count bc conflicts haven’t cleared yet? Just me?

Sprinting towards the billable hours target. Almost there. We can do this.

I particularly don't want to work in this last week of the year because I want the billable hours to count towards 2022.

I turned down an extra 30k salary bump plus an extra 10k annually from a daily accrual amount for billable days and a title bump from a boutique firm to stay at D. While that all sounded nice, it seemed like too much to leave 8 months in @ D for that when I’m up for early promo anyways, and there’s something to be said for growth at a company and not looking like a job hopper to the highest bidder. There will likely be just as lucrative if not more lucrative offers down the line. Am I an idiot?

As we wind down the calendar year, one important question remains... 🤔

How many billable hours did you have? 😁

Happy holidays and happy new year! 🎉

What is everyone’s: (1) billable hours this year; (2) practice group; (3) year; and (4) size of law firm?

Midlevel M&A just lateraled to my V10 firm and have been doing 75-ish billable hrs per week for the past three weeks. I’m exhausted from sleeping 4-5hr per night. Is this typical or is my firm just toxic? Feel like I can’t physically do this long term - any thoughts on whether litigation is more sustainable or what area to switch into within biglaw?

When folks say they bill [insert scary number here], are they generally referring to only billable hours? Or also pro bono/biz dev, etc.?

Is it normal for a smaller firm (less than 100 attys) to expect biglaw level hours without the pay? Current first year who has been at my first job since September, making $85k. My firm’s billable requirements aren’t super high at 1900, but the partner I work for has told me that she’d like me to bill 2200.I know there’d tons of ppl in BL billing close to 3k but I feel like this is way too much for my current pay. My salary is the same as other associates who are expected to just bill 1900

A SF recruiter reached out to me for Mulesoft Advisory role in their professional services dept. I understand this is post sales role - any pointers on WLB or KPIs - is it similar to what most services firms do - at times body shopping and KPIs based on billable hours ? The recruiter didn't share any compensation range ( this is for London ) but said levels depends upon outcome of interview process. Any idea what the pay range is in this part of the firm ?

What is an average bonus percentage of salary or billed hours to expect in a boutique family law firm in the midwest with mostly wealthy clients for a 3rd or 4th year associate? Assume performance was very good.

My friend works at such a firm, 2k billable goal. They are at 1950 hours so far and expect meet 2k by end of year. I'm asking for percentage because it's hard to compare otherwise. Thanks for your help!

EOY Bonus Question: I’m 3 YOE and worked really hard to get to Sr. Consultant ($120K base). I’ve closed a lot of sales this year, surpassed all my billable targets, and managed several key internal roles. Is a $12K EOY bonus fair, or should I push back? If so, how? From what I’ve gathered, it seems like bonus amounts were just given based on tenure and hitting a certain threshold of performance. Would appreciate other perspectives.

Advice needed. I HATE billable hours but recruiters are clamoring to have me apply to open positions in my field at larger firms. I'm at a boutique firm in CA now (real estate, municipal law) and have been here about one year. 7th year attorney. Do I pursue these options? I also have two interviews to work for government agencies (no billable hours). Also would be open to in-house counsel roles. Right now my billable hr target is very fair, compensation is decent, work is decent. Thanks.

Contemplating an offer to go in house. Will I have an opportunity to ask questions about WLB/hours (trying to leave billable hours and big law)? And tips on negotiating comp? Prepared to take a pay cut but don’t want to leave $$ on the table!

I’m a stub year associate that has gotten very very slow (~1-4 billable hours a day). I’ve been doing some pro bono here and there. I’m staffed on a couple deals looking to sign in January but nothing with year-end/Christmas deadlines. Stay quiet or reach out for work? Would prefer not to have my holiday blown up, but also don’t want to give off the impression that I’m actively dodging work.

I'm leaving law firm life soon and I am having some difficulty describing what it is that has made me so unhappy. 24/7 on culture? Billable hours? Unreasonably demanding client requests? I'm just curious for those who have left or are considering leaving law firm culture, what is it that you find most awful about the modern law firm culture?

How do in-house counsel teams (e.g. at a Fortune 500 or slightly smaller sized company) manage projects? In litigation firms, we track billable time, but how do in-house counsel know who is working on what and when? Sorry if this is a stupid Q.. I just know nothing about in-house and am curious.

Unpopular opinion: 2,000 hours is way too high of a benchmark to be eligible for a bonus. Unless like 300+ non-billable hours count towards it (maybe half of that be pro bono hours and the other half be diversity, recruiting, etc), 2000 is way too much.

What’s the difference between working in industry vs PA as an internal auditor? Does industry have billable hours?

Any advice on transitioning out of law to anything else that pays around the same (180+)? I’m 3 years out of law school. 1.5 at a small law firm and 1.5 big law. M&A practice group. Too soon to go in house? I hate billable hours and have no life working 2100 hours a year.

First year in a v10 corporate group. Wondering if billable hour “hoarding” is a thing? As in, my group is busy, there’s seemingly lots of work to go around, and I’ve only gotten positive feedback so far, but this month I’ve gotten relatively few assignments. Wondering if that could be related to seniors/mids wanting to hit billable targets for themselves?

What sort of billable hours are required in Tech Transactions groups?

Anyone else who recently started struggling to get hours? Team seems very busy, but no one gives me work even when I reach out. Not worried about being fired (not yet, anyway), but I’d really like to have more than 3-4 billable hours a day…