Are there any successful alternative fee arrangements/business models other than billable hours? Excluding contingency in plaintiff.

What is a material billable hours difference from your peers at the same group? If I bill 150 less a year than another associate should I be worried?

How does your firm measure utilization? I work for a small boutique that defines it as utilization = number of billable hours/2,080 and full bonus payout occurs at 80% plus.

Went from a big firm to work for a smaller firm. The people in the smaller firm are protective of their work and are good by their work too. I no longer feel chaos or stress. I am treated with respect and my schedule is more normal. I am even working more billable hours than before, but it feels like a seamless experience. I don’t work then past 5pm or anything out of the ordinary for this time of the year. I am so grateful!

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?

I currently work at a medium sized firm and have about two years experience in personal injury litigation. The billable hours and lack of work life balance are really getting to me and I am looking to switch to something else out of litigation, preferably in house. I am also looking to relocate to a different state. How do I go about properly marketing myself to companies that might not take my relocation and minimal experience seriously?

So I was a 5th year associate in nyc making 100 k a year 2k billable hours.. I decided to leave for the role Im in now.. my old countered to keep me at 115k (which was like pulling teeth for them) but I left anyways now I find out that they offered a 7th year 150 k and a partner title should I be offended that they didn’t even try more with me

I just spoke with a software architect that went back to school to learn software engineering after law school because it was more lucrative and had less hours. He’s worked his way up and has the skills and authority to work 6:30am-10am and gets to work remotely. We discussed that results/outputs is better than billable time like in law and public accounting. Yet, his parents and others would view him as “lazy” but he does his job and makes a fantastic living. Time>Money and Results>Hours

Trying to explain billable hrs to hubs. I billed 160 this month, which he said “is only 40 hr weeks” (true) - but how many hrs do you figure you “work” or are in the office to bill 150?

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.

Can you get fired for having low utilization as a senior? My billable hours this busy season have been much lower than my peers.

BONUS. What’s amount bonus do you get, and how often? Including bonus structure (ex for meeting billable hours), firm/boss randomly bonuses you, Christmas bonus, etc)

Are any other paralegals struggling with billable hour requirements? I have 5 years of experience in corporate transactions, M&A, and real estate work, and have never had billable hour requirements. I'm in a new job now where I do and I'm nowhere near meeting them. I'm getting a lot more admin work than billable work, and it's stressing me out.

Looking to leave a govt job for a junior attorney role in a small workers comp defense firm. I have no experience in workers comp. How easy is it to learn the work and make 1850 billable hours? What future opportunities does this experience give?

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

Weber folks! At what point do you become eligible for a yearly bonus and how is your bonus determined? Any tie to billable hours?

Curious to know what other firm's bonus structures are, particularly those with billable requirements of 1900 and below. Trying to understand what the norm is and figure out if associates at my firm are getting screwed. thanks

Anyone working as a 2 years + lawyer for Fragomen in Canada can share their salaries and working advantages? (holidays, billable hours etc). Got an interview coming up and want to make sure not to under-sale my profile!

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

Any insight into Jackson Lewis NYC office? Compensation, billable hours, WLB? I would be a 2-3 year

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

Any F in the Bay Area wana have some exciting time?

Is making 10 times your initial salary in 25 years at the same company good progression? Started at 20k and making 210k.

Just lateraled to another big law firm, starting in a couple of weeks. Firm extended WFH until at least Oct. Any tips for starting new job remotely/connecting with people? Should I still ask to go to the office just to see what it looks like...?

How to ask Salary Hike to my Manager, How should i lead the conversation? Will it impact anything (promotion etc.). Please guide me as I am fresher and this is my 1st company.

Hi All, Which company is better in terms of all the aspects like wlb, culture, benefits and so on..

1) Rakuten - 25 LPA
2) Applied Materials - 27 LPA

YoE - 5 years, Java

Hi All,
Whats is the CTC for new joiner Senior associate 1??

Where to find the project details in talent portal?

To ZSers who got onsite: How to get onsite opportunities as BTSA?

Hi fishes,
Had a word with Recruiter yesterday, they mentioned that I have cleared the HR round and they are ready to offer 21LPA.
The offer letter has not be released yet.
Is there any connection with BGV form filling and the Offer letter release?

Hi NatWest folks,

I got offer from NatWest Chennai location . My skills set is project management 13 years experience. They have mentioned in my offer letter B7 corporate title is associate. When I ask to hr guy he said it is equal to Manager level. But title will change department department. Is it true? B7 is manager role ? What is CDIO department in Natwest. Please clear my doubts

I have experience in node.js and react with 3 yr fulltime and 1 yr internship. Current ctc is 6.5 lpa. How much be my expected salary?

F*****-up story…please be constructive (but also open & direct)
With my wife for 14 years, 2 kids under 8y - both under a lot of pressure bc Covid/work/private life/… and have been (unconsciously) running away from our couple not working “since a long time” (dixit my wife). We want to try and fix it, but I also met someone new (not sure if she would even want me) and wondering if it’s worth fixing it (since we are trying/running/avoiding it for years) - just worried about the kids…any advice

How did your lifestyle change for the season of preparing to take the CFA tests?

Any chance of overcoming 3.34 undergrad gpa from state school? B4 cpa in TAS

As a Senior Java Developer with 7.5 yrs experience what would be the expected CTC at Amazon(SDE2) and Walmart(SDE2)?

Transition manager with overall 12 years experience, looking for Transiton manager, project management or program management opportunities..

I am in a tech IC position. One of friends switched to FAANG by converting the profile to consultant profile. The friend who might have less tech knowledge than me is now in FAANG and earning more. If the end goal would be that the friend might one day be a product manager and me an engineering manager taking instructions from the same friend, isn't consultant profile an easier path to growth. I had been practising DSA for years and the competition is only ever growing.

I’m a junior in big law and in the short time I’ve been here, I’ve noticed that counsels produce perfect drafts and yet aren’t partners but partners can’t write two sentences without numerous typos. Shouldn’t counsels be partners and partners counsels instead?

Ah, Fridays. The day partners decide they don't want to work all weekend and dump everything on you.

4th year associate, 200k student loans—think I’ll be able to get a mortgage even with loans? Looking at a place for 450k. I have 3.5 years public interest work that counts towards PLSF and I plan on going back to government so I really don’t care to pay it down.

When your seniors aren’t motivated and pulling their weight, it shows and demotivates you. It’s a domino effect. How do you handle these situations? The senior pushes every single thing down and it’s clear to everyone this person could care less. Makes me not care and not want to do anything either…

Any group still busy heading into the new year? Been dead for months and still dead. Real estate — V30

What does it mean if there’s a NEP at the firm who’s been there for a long time (20+ years), but never got promoted to EP? Never held leadership roles too. Does it usually mean EPs does not like the NEP enough to get promoted?

The NEP has a book of business, though no idea how much it brings in.

I’ve seen this rant a lot so I know we all have that one partner—but for the love of god can you just forward me the emails when you get it?? I see you got this urgent request over 10 days ago 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Random partner asked a litigation-related question to a partner I frequently work with (i’m a transactional associate). My partner cc’d me and said for me to briefly look. Asked the library. They got me a great case. Sent it back. Now the random partner is asking for more cases in another circuit.

I haven’t done caselaw research since 1L and this isn’t even my practice… wtf do I do (I am fully utilized in my normal work and have a few deals closing soon…)

Baby lawyer here. What is the difference between a full time staff attorney and an associate attorney? Does one get paid less?

What are newly minted nonequity comps like at V10, V50, V100 firms?

Taking an informal survey how many firms (I) have the junior and midlevel summer associates plan the bulk of the summer events (lunches but also evening events) and (ii) count time spent on the summer program as qualified billable work (in that partners see how much you bill to it on your time sheet)?

Is getting into crypto law a bad idea or is it a burgeoning field??

I’m a true night-owl that begins thinking clearly about 5 PM. I often send projects out after midnight. Early morning emails and calls are an adventure. Has anyone else had to work through this issue? Fight it or embrace it?

Hi! Would anyone be willing to refer to for a role at baker botts?

How long after interviewing for a lateral position would you expect to hear back?

Hi boys & girls!

Joined a big firm (Big4) not long a go and starting to feel like I got a good grip on my current work.

I've always been very technical, so I think that the only thing I am missing now is making sales. (I really wanna make partner)

Can any seasoned lawyer share tips and materials (i.e. books) which can help?

Would it be a good idea to join a Social Club where potential clients spend time? (gym/tennis/paddel/events)

Any advice welcome!

Partners - what was the most stressful year of your career? The year before you made partner? Your first year of partnership? The year(s) you or your partner gave birth?

When you meet with a partner for a new assignment. Do you bill for that time? I’m a new associate, so I don’t know. On the one side it seems that meeting and conferring for an assignment requested by the the client would be billable since it’s using firm time and resources. On the other side, we are just talking about how to tackle the assignment and not tackling the assignment itself.