Big Law Discussions
Billable Hours

Having my performance review soon. Have not met my billable hours last year due to lack of work. I have been very proactive and constantly emailed partners to inquire about more work. I will be a 4 year associate this year. Thinking to negotiate my level/compensation. Any advise?

I recently moved from litigation to transactional and am struggling to reach billable targets. In litigation it was no problem hitting 1800+ hours but don’t see how I’m going to come anywhere close to that in a transactional role.

I’m mostly sitting around all day waiting for work that doesn’t take long to complete (though at my desk for 10-12 hours/day). Is this normal? Suggestions on how to keep busy other than asking for work and having good work product?

Associates: what is your monthly billable goal? Just trying to figure out what's reasonable 🤔 (my firm is production based, effective rate is ever-changing, and workflow is cyclical)

I work in insurance defense and we are getting slammed as far as workload and have been for some time. It’s nice because I haven’t had to beg for billable work and always hit my goals. My question is whether this has been the norm at other insurance defense firms. My other question is how other states are dealing with COVID restrictions on jury trials. Has anyone tried anything during the pandemic?

What is the minimum acceptable amount of billable hours per day/week at your firm? What is the target amount?

Incoming junior-level consultant wants to know what is “billable hour”.
Once in a while I see discussions around billable hours, but I don’t know how that works. After googling, it appears to me that billable hour only matters to me if my salary is paid by hours. Since I will receive a fixed annual salary, does this mean that I don’t need to worry about the concept of billable hours?
A related questions: generally speaking, is the bonus related to the hours that I worked?
Thanks!

Associates - what is an effective way that you’ve been told to pick up your billable hours/meet your goals? Anything that really resonated with you? Have a few associates that are just not billing enough. I’ve had general discussions with each of them but not seeing improvement. Boutique firm and 1800 hour requirements.

The recent most billable hours post, inspired me. What is your longest billable day? Mine was 56 hours straight with no break—and the partner was more than a jerk when I was saying no more at the 30 hour point. That was two 24 hour billable days back to back on my time sheet and on the bill, a 360 hour month, and 650 aggregated for two months. And it is one reason (of so many reasons) why this job can suck so much! At least I got a good bonus...

Curious about how many hours plaintiffs litigation attorneys work on average per week. I’m a defense attorney and billable hours don’t make for the best work life balance. Thanks in advance.

On average, if you work from 8am until 6pm (10 hours), about how much time do you expect to put down on your time sheets between billable and non-billable time?

What is the total comp expected for an experienced Director at Alixpartners? What kind of billable hours is expected? Bonus structure? How is the culture in the restructuring group?

What is your annual billable hours target? Looking to see what the norm is.

3.5 years out of school, 2400 billable hours last year in TRS and just got promoted. what kind of year end compensation should I be expecting? Bonus and new salary

Anyone know what the salary should be for a first year associate working at the biggest defense firm in Florida? I just got offered this month at a north Florida branch and not sure whether this is a good salary:
$80k
$12 per hour quarterly bonus after hitting 150 billable hours.

I’ve heard some defense associates have a set quarterly bonus it doesn’t seem to be the case at this firm.

New staff wondering how my firm requirements compare to the average. Anyone care to weigh in? Supposed to get 50 billable hours/week from next week until April 1. Then 55 billable hours/week for the last two weeks

Small firm owners need pov! Some good news after almost 11 months of applying and interviews and lots of rejections finally got an offer! In NYC small firm, ex big law folks, no billable hours, niche practice area, appearance of forwarded thinking firm, remote till who knows when, emphasis on pro bono initiatives and building book of business. The catch salary. Was making around 140k at last firm with 1800 billable. Offer is 85k and revist to bump to around 100k in several months after review

Some good news after almost 11 months of applying and interviews and lots of rejections finally got an offer! In NYC small firm, ex big law folks, no billable hours, niche practice area, appearance of forwarded thinking firm, remote till who knows when, emphasis on pro bono initiatives and building book of business. The catch salary. Was making around 140k at last firm with 1800 billable. Offer is 85k and revist to bump to around 100k in several months after review (plus discretionary bonus)

Some good news after almost 11 months of applying and interviews and lots of rejections finally got an offer! In NYC small firm, ex big law folks, no billable hours, niche practice area, appearance of forwarded thinking firm, remote till who knows when, emphasis on pro bono initiatives and building book of business. The catch salary. Was making around 140k at last firm with 1800 billable. Offer is 85k and revist to bump to around 100k in several months after review (plus discretionary bonus)

What does your firm allow you to count towards non-billable hours other than standard business development?

Anyone have advice or thoughts in quitting without having something lined up? Hit 60 billable hours for this week already and it’s only Thursday morning. Considering just quitting and then being able to devote time and energy to interviewing.

Imagine a person lateraling into Big Law who has never had to do the billable hours previously. 1) What would be your best piece of advice? 2) What do you wish someone would have told you about billing when you started? 3) Is there maybe a book for someone entering the minefield on billing effectively and capturing time effectively? Thanks in advance!

Are there any public firms out there that don’t have billable hours requirements all year? I know that’s the norm just wondering if a unicorn exists

I have COVID and obviously my partners and team are all aware. Run down but not the worst symptoms so have been picking up a bit of work, probably a few billable hrs each day. I’m not telling clients I’m ill or external lawyers and my OOO isn’t on. A partner just emailed a client with me copied saying I have COVID. I am really annoyed about this? Am I fair to be annoyed? Do I say anything?

Pls forgive my ignorance, (an intern) I've always had a question of billable hours, and this goes for any firm. Let's say you're a beast, and can take out tasks that takes multiple hours to do, but you do it much quicker . Do you just bill the time you took, or would you over bill the hours you worked? Especially now with working at home, this seems like an opportunity for people in this line of work to get away with.

What is the average annual salary increase for a first year associate starting at $125k at a busy midsized firm in New York? What would be reasonable to ask for (assuming a $300 billable rate and 1800 billable requirement)?

I just got my first job in industry coming from B4 audit and I’ll be working directly under the Controller of a small private company (as a Manager). Should I ask him hours expectations? Looking for any tips on how to transition from billable hours to back office. I want to do a good job and have a lot to learn, but I also don’t want to set the precedent I’ll work crazy hours.

What are the expected billable hours/revenue/analytical requirements for staff at your firm?

First year here. Do associates get fired for not meeting the billable requirements?

Seeking some candid advice:
I am relatively new to the legal community (roughly 1.5 years). I work in insurance and I first believed my frustrations/dissatisfaction involving my current role stemmed from my inability to effectively capture my time, especially when my 10-15 hour days (and long weekends) would produce minuscule results. After consulting with my external legal community, I turned my billable hours around (virtually overnight). (continues in comments)...

I'm a first year currently at 100% target billable hours. My team hasn't been assigning me much work and I'm worried that I won't be able to meet the target (it'll probably dip below 100% since the last few days remaining in 2020). Does this matter? What if I meet 99% of the target billables? Please advise!

What is reasonable salary when taking billable rate into account? I’ve heard one third of billable rate x billable hour expectation. Hoping to provide some back up when I negotiate my raise in January.

Leaving a biglaw shop at end of the year. A client that I've worked with, and who has liked my work, reached out to me (a senior associate, copying all clients but copying no partners or other personnel from my firm) to ask if I could handle a new matter. They asked for a conflicts check and what my billable rate might be in the new year. I'm departing to a new, much smaller firm which will most likely have a much lower rate.

How do you approach this? Alert the typical partners?

I just started as a first year associate at a firm that does not have any organized pro bono, however there is an “uncapped” billable hours policy that would allow me to apply pro bono to my hours requirement. How would you suggest I go about getting into pro bono work? It’s my understanding it’s not done much at my firm.

People who work 50, 60, 70+ hours a week: how do you do that without putting your project over budget? Are your engagements written to have a resource work over 40+hours a week? Are you spending over 10-30 hours a week on added non billable time? What are y’all doing with all of that time?!

Let’s pretend we’re holding companies. I’ll start:

No, we can’t hire an extra writer even though you’re clocking 70+ hours a week.

BTW, our contract with your client caps billable hours per employee because they know we don’t pay overtime. Here’s a non-billable code you should start using for the rest of the year.