Big Law Discussions
Billable Hours

I’ll be put up for partner next year, and I am struggling with how to balance my increasing need and desire to do BD with the need (and desire) to focus on client billable work. I’m sure this is a problem for everyone their whole career, but if any partners could provide some advice on how to manage this really pivotal time, I’d appreciate it. My firm and market are such that there’s a need for me to do both - we have to hustle for clients, and I can’t fully turn over deals to my juniors.

Until we move away from the billable hours model, there will not be true work life balance when free time is preferred. As you gain experience and knowledge within our field we are too knowledgeable to be equating our value to time spent discussing or doing. There is an inherent conflict from leaders that want to maximize revenue which means maximize billable hours and staff that minimize hours.

First year family law associate..I only have 1160 billable hours done for the year (I’m including what I expect to bill in December as well). Given I only make $80,000 a year, is that reasonable? Or is that a super low number and should I expect to be fired soon 😂. My target billables is supposed to be 1680 a year. Also my hourly rate is only $109 because all we do is legal aid here.

First gen lawyer here (not that that really impacts the question/post) but I see all these posts about entering billable time and appropriate descriptions (mostly in big law or other practice areas (Domestic Relations litigation here)). How often do people here run into clients requesting meetings to have their bills explained or refusing to pay certain work? What’s your practice area, and who in your firm is tasked with these explanation meetings?

First gen lawyer here (not that that really impacts the question/post) but I see all these posts about entering billable time and appropriate descriptions (mostly in big law or other practice areas). How often do people here run into clients requesting meetings to have their bills explained or refusing to pay certain work? Are you small, mid-size, big law, and who in your firm is tasks with these explanation meetings?

Question re: salary. I’m thinking about accepting an offer at a small (4-6 attorneys) transactional firm. I would primarily be working on NDAs for clients. The role sounds great (no billable hours, fully remote, flexible hours/ can work from anywhere); however, the salary is $70K. I’m a new attorney, with only one year of experience. Does this salary seem low? If so, any advice on what someone in my position should ask for?

If you asked to be considered for early promotion and didn’t get it (despite being highly rated, exceeding billable goal, etc) would you look elsewhere? Is it right to be angry about it? I don’t want to spin myself up unnecessarily if it’s unjustified

Getting over heartbreak and having a full time job is torture lol. My boyfriend and I just broke up after almost a year of being together. It was such a beautiful relationship but ultimately he just didn’t love me. I love him so much. My mind knows that I deserve reciprocal love and I’m worthy, but I feel physically ill. My body hurts, my stomach is in knots, my head hurts. How is it that I have to mend a broken heart but also meet my billable hours lmao

I’m a first-time prospective lateral likely to get an offer shortly. I just received a lateral questionnaire that requests billable hours, rates, fees collected, etc. for the last three years. Forgive my ignorance but is this normal/standard? Do people actually answer these honestly? One of the reasons I’m leaving my firm is there isn’t enough work in my group so of course my hours are low.

M&A folks: What amount of billable time is appropriate to draft a pre-LOI NDA? Small deal (under $50 million).

I am a 10 yr lawyer. 7 yrs in my practice area. Little over a year at current firm. Still an associate. Im at large plaintiff firm w/ billable requirements. I do mass/class cases and hold a couple leadership positions (these were competitive to get). What should salary be and when should I make partner. I’ll add I work remote and pretty autonomously. Little contact with partners or anyone at my firm.

I started at a new firm this year in January. I had a billable goal that was given to me mid year of around 1750 house for the year. I am nowhere near that and definitely will not meet the goal. I had so many non billable hours I was forced to take when I first came in. I worked my ass off in busy season. At my previous firm I never fell short of hours as it was B4. This firm is mid sized and more focused on WLB. My question is how bad do you think this will affect my comp??

How many billable hours are you working right now? I’m hitting like 5-10 per week lately.

What percentage of lawyers do you think pad their billable hours?

My friend started his own firm and has been undercutting his previous top 25 firm since they charge hourly and usually have a preparer, reviewer and partner look at the return so it’s a lot of billable hours for a single shareholder physician. This appears to be a great market to go after since it seems like this type of client is too small for middle market firms and perfect for a soloprenuer that came from a middle market firm. 🤔

Hi can someone give me an estimate of what a pediatric occupational therapist should be making in a city with a high cost of living. No benefits. Between 30 to 40 billable hours, documentation time unpaid etc. Independent contractor role. Practicing for over 5 years.

Has anyone transitioned from Tax to RM? Could you share your experience and pros/cons of the change? Really want to get out of client facing/billable work, but I like my firm. Thank you!

Do you think someone with 1700 billable hours in a slow group is in danger of getting fired?

15+ years experience in Forensic Accounting. What would be considered fair pay in the NYC area? Average yearly Billings was 2,500, however recently took over the building out of systems, training younger staff, more marketing in a set region; basically more non billable work.

I was part of the tech layoffs over the past couple of weeks. I have an opportunity to go back in house or back to a law firm. Both are great opportunities and comparable comp. Pro of law firm - stability (less likely to be laid off). Pro of in house - no billable hours. Should I ride out the recession at a law firm until things settle down or take the risk and go back to in house?

Hey all - first year associate here… I’ve met my hours requirement for this year (requirement is 1900 and am currently at around 2050 with billable hours - approx. 2160 with non billable admin hours) and I am just tired. Is it okay to just “disappear” during the holidays (thanksgiving week, week of Christmas) and let partners and senior associates know I am not available? At this point I don’t care about making more money - I just want to sleep, read a good trashy book, and cuddle with my dog.

In house litigators - what does your workday/life look like compared to being at a firm? Even if there are no billable hours, do the deadlines and the nature of litigation cause it to be equally as stressful as a firm environment?

Hearing about layoffs is scaring me. Who do you think would be most in danger in being laid off as a second or third year? These examples all worked 1800 hours.

1. Subpar work quality compared to peers but no crazy bad reputation 2. Low billable hours (e.g. 1700 billable hours +100 hours pro bono) 3. So slow that partner sometimes writes your time off - work would be actually worth 1700 hours.

Deloitte & BAH compete for the same work, and have overlapping or similar pay for similar backgrounds.

Yet the workload at D is higher, due partly to 'firm initiatives' - D is less efficient (more work to get similar result).

Ergo, firm initiatives are often not productive; also, D benches rather than furloughs people without billable work, and hires people to the bench (vs client). Granted, D does have more mobility laterally & vertically.

Is any of this wrong?

Folks in HR or anyone else with knowledge : how diligently do you expect employees to enter their PTO hours into the HR system (not the time sheets/billable hours but the leave management/PTO system)? What happens if you don't enter it in the system but take only the available hours across the year? Does it impact HR in any way?

Partners - how bad is it to have the occasional spelling/grammer mistakes in the memos? Are we really expected to have perfectly proofread everything when we are on billable hours? Because I always catch something the more I read them and proofreading takes time... or are other associates just that much better than I am and get everything in one go? I definitely proofread more for court filings but I want to know how much my memos are hurting me.

So I got 2 offers, 1 at a well-known firm (that I previously worked at, not as an atty) that offered 80K plus full benefits (100% health coverage, PTO, sick days, discretionary bonus & 1800 billable req.) Their a little old school in their methods but I do see the younger gen. coming in to make changes. 2nd offer is at a newer firm however i’ve heard great things, and they offered 80k, unl. PTO, 1500 billable hours, bonus incentives qrtrly, & 50% health ins. WHY can’t I make a decision? HELP

State 1) the amount of billable hours you are estimated to reach by the end of the year, 2) the original target/goal, 3) your salary, and 4) whether you’re in a small/medium/big law firm:

How were your billable hours the first couple of weeks after you lateraled?

Patent litigators - how many hours a week do you work to stay on track with your billable hours req? Currently work solely in prosecution and always hear people say that pros has a better WLB but I personally don’t think pros has good WLB to begin with. 150 hours a month on a pure prosecution docket is a struggle.

What percentage of associates meet the billable hours requirement at your firm?

My firm has a 9-year partnership track as of a year or two ago. It has grown quickly from 5 to 7 to 9 in the past 10 or so years. In the written document that sets out the criteria for partnership, it basically says that your billable hours need to go up every year. Our minimum is 1900. I’m wondering how normal this increasing billables requirement is? I am torn between thinking it’s sensible and thinking it’s another example of law firms treating associates like machines.

Have you ever heard of a firm asking for a candidate’s billable hours before cutting him or her a bonus true-up check or deposit?

I’m considering lateraling and it’s questionable whether I’ll make hours this year. I’d rather the new firm just assume I will make hours and pay me the bonus before bonus season.

Any advice for transitioning from ID to something in-house or even out of lawyering completely? The billable hours and “unlimited PTO” (aka no real time off) are killing me and the billable mentality is creeping into my personal life (every day thoughts like “If I can finish the grocery shopping in .8, then I have an extra .2 to walk the dog.”) I just don’t feel the billable life is the best choice for my mental health or personal life (newlywed). But no idea how to start making the transition…

Internal Thoughts: Being a lawyer is already stressful enough, but these BILLABLE HOURS can kiss my entire ass! Aside from going in-house can anyone recommend some other career paths in the legal field that don’t require billables? Thanks in advance 🥲

What should I do? Should I be worried? I am currently in tax advisory. I’d say over 1/2 of us have not been at utilization % the leaders wants us to be at. Just seems across the board billable hours are down. Some of us are getting loaned out to the tax compliance team. Yet our group is still hiring folks?! I feel as if partners/senior managers are just unhappy with the talent they do have and are fishing for better. Am I way off?

Anyone else’s firm circulate the billable hours for every attorney in the firm? We (Am250 regional firm) get ours monthly and got everyone’s for last full FY at the end of October. I was pretty surprised to see that <25% of associates hit the “recommended” billable target (1800). I was feeling sort of insecure about my billables and then this opened my eyes that maybe I was actually above the curve. Coming from a smaller firm this sort of transparency was eye opening. Thoughts?

Does anyone know what the billable requirements are for a counsel job (off the track) with Littler?