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

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I’m a second year without any active deals since they all closed year end and am at 8.9 hours. Enjoy the lull!!

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I have like 2 total lmao. Also only been working for 3 months.

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I think I've billed 15 hours this week. Trying to enjoy it and remind myself I'll be longing for this lull in a few weeks.

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It’s January. Don’t stress. It’ll come …

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Typically things slow down after the end of year craze to close in December so probably not abnormal. Honestly though, I’m even busier this week than I was last week and I already have deadlines piling up for the next few weeks through February. Billed 10 hours yesterday and felt like I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

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Depends on what you do exactly. I work in M&A and we are relatively slow right now, after being slammed at year-end when everyone is trying to get things done before the tax year ends. But that's the nature of my work. There are weeks where I legitimately do 20 hours of work and then there are weeks where I do like 85

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The ebb and flow nature of the work and the constant billable requirement is one thing I do not miss. You are definitely not alone and no one is going to raise alarm bells if your not up to metrics for a single week. Unfortunately, a slower time now will mean you will have to make up for it later, but I do not know a single attorney who billed the same amount of hours every single day of every week.

That said, the biggest pitfall I have seen young associates fall into is getting too far behind for too long and finding themselves in a hole they cannot dig themselves out of.

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