Are there any non-entertainment firms that don’t require tracking billable hours?

Recent lateral junior associate in brand new practice where I'm the only associate. I'm probably going to bill 1,500 hours max this year due to being very slow and taking time off for a delayed honeymoon which I disclosed during my interview process. I have been told my work product is good, I don't turn anything down, I participate in non-billable work, I'm responsive and I always let people know I'm available to help. Do I need to be worried about getting fired for low hours?

Does higher vault ranking (v10-30 compared to v80-100) open more doors for corporate in-house opportunities for a senior associate? If chambers practice area rankings and expected billable hours are similar and they offer the same DPW pay scale, does it matter less? Is it better to stay at/lateral to a firm where you might be able last longer to learn the necessary skills? Any personal anecdote or advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

Have any of you taken "low bono" clients while working at a firm? I want to take on a low bono client or two but not sure who would get the money. This is a contract opportunity through a non profit so I'm assuming a 1099 will be issued. The per hour rate is significantly less than my billable rate. I would (obviously) like the money but my real objective is just getting experience/networking since I recently moved to a new state and don't have clients of my own.

Mostly to vent, but wonder if anyone else has had to deal with this…my team consists of a partner, shareholder, 3 associates, myself and a legal assistant. We have a busy docket, 70 active litigation files. For over a year I have been dealing with inexperienced legal assistants, mostly coming from other areas of law. The partner relies heavily on me to clean up the messes, fix the mistakes, etc., and HR is on me for doing too much admin, i.e., non-billable work.

Is 180 billable hours per month a high “target” (to use the firm’s vernacular) or expectation?Although it may not be unreasonably high, I believe it is a high number and would at least appreciate someone at my firm acknowledging that. Perhaps I’m wrong and I’m sure you’ll tell me if so.

Anyone else completely mail it in after giving their 2 weeks? Major senioritis for me rn. Probably had 2 billable hours today. Maybe

What are firm’s known billable requirements? Is there a ramp up period?

What do travel, utilization requirements (billable hours?), and work-life look like for those of you working in the Cloud space?

I’m working as an associate at a mid-size firm of about 140 attorneys, but was just offered a position with an AM 100 as a staff attorney with the possible bump to associate within a year. Is this a good move? Billable hours and salary are the same the first year. Any advice is appreciated!

Busy season check - rate your happiness from 1 to 10 and your average billable hours per week (10 being like a rock star happy) 🤠

Is it just me or the average billable work in infrastructure transactions has blown off steam in the last couple of weeks?

Received a job offer. Was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on a concern I had about it. It's an entry level position, and I don't have much experience. The billables are 2040 a year. For billable hours in civil litigation and insurance defense, is 2040 hours for a 1st year associate on the high end in this field for a small or midsize firm? It seems like most attorneys I know have minimum requirements of around 1800. The compensation is around 80k a year.

Bonus Structures:

Looking for a comparison to what other firms are offering and how this one stacks up. Ours is working out a brand new bonus structure:

Our general targets are 75% util. Billable or qualified non-billable time. Bonuses will be $1000 per quarter just meeting that. $25/ hr for every billable hour beyond that on top.

Obligatory financial info post. 1) size of firm, 2) billable requirements, 3) salary, 4) bonus, 5) quality of life, 6) debt, and and 7) family/married/single. Go!

How many billable hours do people in prosecution tend to average each month? I’ve gone through waves of feeling like my billable hours requirement is reasonable to feeling like I’m drowning and can’t possibly do it for that long.

As a new hire, how long did it take you to get a full plate of work? Meaning at least 7.5 billable hours per day.

To the post below- it is quiet, so I’ll bite!
Does anyone know about associate compensation at the regional Atlantic Canada firms? The the big ones have all been posting job ads for associates in the 3-5 year range. Any insight on salary and billable targets?

My mid-sized firm furloughed most of its staff. Im a first year associate (7 months in) with not that many billable hours. What are the chances I’m next? So much paranoia!

Is anyone experiencing a reduction of billable hours due to less assignments?

Does anyone have experience working for a ALSP? How does compensation work (pay and benefits)? Are you an employee or technically an IC? Do you have billable requirements like at a firm? How do you think it prepared you to potentially move in house? I'm currently at a firm but thinking of taking a position with an ALSP but my goal is to go in house.

Any suggestions for laptops? Need a new one that is reliable with good performance before starting school. Budget: <$1k. Thank you 🙏

Any one doing MBA as a big law associate? What was your background, your thoughts process on costs and benefits, and where did you end up?

Guys I hold an offer from Bank of America 20 LPA fix and I have been offered C11 in citi , how much should I ask from Citi ? YOE : 8 , Tech : Middleware

Does citi provide any hike for new joinee?if so, what is the default %

Anyone here works at Microsoft? How is the culture, hrs, salary, benefits? TIA

Interviewing for London office. Does ACN insurance provide private dental and eye coverage?

Is jpmc providing relocation and joining bonus to new joiners? Is there any policy that if a person has base location as Bangalore mentioned in his current company offer letter but has been working from home since the start because of covid and never actually relocated to city not be eligible for joining bonus ?

What’s your favorite blue dial dive watch? Gotta be all steel, though.

Hey does anyone know anything about ESA letters?

Can someone from EY please explain what mercury is and why everyone complains about it so much? I feel like its mentioned in every other post

If you’re interested in TAS (FDD) and would like to join a midsized firm, let me know! We’re pretty much all remote, but it ultimately depends on your home office.

Why am I scared and embarrassed to show affection towards my family, despite wanting to?

For example, sometimes I just want to hug my mom (I just graduated and still live at home) or even just say I Love You, but I Can't!

I have a really good relationship with my family so I don't understand why I can't just muster the courage to show affection?

I don't have any issues with showing affection to my SO...

Anyone have any ideas? Do I need a therapist?

Hear McGarrah Jessee is hiring. Anyone know who to reach out to?

How many years of work is really necessary on a resume? I have jobs dating back to 2006. I’m starting back to school in Spring ‘23 due to a PCS this fall. Potential degree in Psychology, Early Childhood Education or Social Work.

Anyone having idea about legal and general group, based out of uk..

What's the max range for C1 in CapG eng?
My yoe - 8.5 and QA professional with hold on TestComplete, Selenium and Python

I’m interested. How do you do collaborate on documents? For me it was always scribbles on a printed document handed to me to type in by a partner. I still get this. Also get photos of markups. Some have learned track changes. Some put arrows on a PDF redline. I prefer track changes because I don’t have to spend time typing stuff manually into documents. What are others views?

Laterals - did your previous firm milk you until your last day (and expected you to keep doing work until you returned your laptop) or were you rolled off matters and given time to transition? Any tips on getting the firm to back off on the former?

First review is coming up. Tips for survival? I fully expect it to be terrible. I am not happy here, I never have been, I don't want that to come across in the review, and I just want to make it out of the meeting with a small amount of grace. My plan is to just nod along and say thanks, will work on. I am also insanely busy right now and this is the last thing I want to deal with.

It is incredibly demoralizing to be killing myself slogging through diligence for a very complicated target, including drafting an extensive diligence memo, all on a very tight timeline, just to be left off all the interesting calls about the purchase agreement where I could learn b/c partner is concerned about the bill & doesn’t want to write off time. It makes me feel like I’m not on the team & am just a worker bee drone & I am way less motivated to do my best work.

Partners, do better.

Those who’ve left biglaw and went in house did you panic before accepting? I’m a 4th year who moved to a new firm for only 7 months. I have an offer to be head of US legal for a startup and I want to accept but I’m panicking. I feel like I’m walking away from prestige and SO much future cash. Is this normal?

Do you know anyone that switched from law firm to Carta?

Anyone ever register an expensive car in Montana under a LLC to avoid taxes?

Hi All current 1st year here - was wondering how many years of experience is optimal before trying to lateral? / is there a time of year when the lateral market is the hottest?

Those who lateraled in q3/q4 of 2021 - how are you handling bonuses for your secretaries?

Recent lateral junior associate in brand new practice where I'm the only associate. I'm probably going to bill 1,500 hours max this year due to being very slow and taking time off for a delayed honeymoon which I disclosed during my interview process. I have been told my work product is good, I don't turn anything down, I participate in non-billable work, I'm responsive and I always let people know I'm available to help. Do I need to be worried about getting fired for low hours?

Any midlevel or seniors who missed bonus target at a V10? What did the firm do?

Does higher vault ranking (v10-30 compared to v80-100) open more doors for corporate in-house opportunities for a senior associate? If chambers practice area rankings and expected billable hours are similar and they offer the same DPW pay scale, does it matter less? Is it better to stay at/lateral to a firm where you might be able last longer to learn the necessary skills? Any personal anecdote or advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

Hi everyone! Junior associate in big law here. My wife got a job in Chicago and we are looking to move there by January. I am not licensed in Illinois yet but will be taking the bar in February. My firm is allowing me to lateral to our Chicago office but mentioned that “I needed to be bared before we can do that.” Anyone here know if I can still practice starting in January until I get my results back? I am barred in Indiana and do M&A work. Thanks!

Does anyone else feel like maybe they’d like to work less hours and get a less demanding job but realize you absolutely could not ever give up the money? I’m talking about aside from like having a family to support etc, I just love the money too much

Im a junior and I get a lot of random please run redlines, please send documents from the system at 8pm, 10pm, etc, and they expect me to respond right away (which is fine because I'm home and its an easy task). I usually stay on to check emails until 10pm-12am. BUT when we go back to office, how will we handle those random tasks that require immediate attention? What if im in the middle of my commute? Do we just not go home until late? Will the expectation to be on 24 7 relax a bit?

After clerking, my BF recently accepted an offer from and joined a V50 firm (been there a few weeks). Shortly before his start date, he heard back from a V5 firm (one he’s wanted to join for a while) and just got an even better offer. Practice groups at each firm are also different.

The office he joined for the V50 firm is in City A. The office for the V5 firm is in City B (where V50 firm also has an office).

How should he break the news to the V50 firm to minimize reputational risk, etc.?

We’ve just had performance reviews, and it turns out that every junior/mid associate in my practice group (including me) that I have spoken to has individually been told that they’re performing above their level and that they are amazing etc. Is this normal / is this a retention tactic? A number of juniors are considering moving laterally, in case it adds any context, just seems weird to all be told the same thing when it can’t be true for everyone...

Any inside info on the McGuireWoods west LA office? Specifically the Healthcare transaction group. Interviewing this week.

Looking to switch from a boutique firm into big law and make a move into corporate from litigation. Anyone have experiences doing this? Also, does anyone know which firms are more willing to hire laterals from outside of big law and which ones won’t?