Besides paper and software any other ways to track billable hours?

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

What’s big law like in San Francisco? Anyone have any insights to firm cultures or billable targets?

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)?

I had one of those VERY nonproductive days today. I think I accomplished maybe an hour of billable work, even though I had a bunch of stuff to do. I just came off a 300 hour month, and unexpectedly got a continuance on a deadline on Wednesday, and it’s like all of my motivation leeched out of me at once.

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.

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.

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!

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

What’s your current billable rate and salary?

Billables are low this month. Like I have 65 billable hours in so far. I’ve messaged partners over the last week to try and get more cases but there are tons of new associates who were just onboarded and were at a low point for business. I’m freaking out

I am a new associate (1 month in mid-tier firm) and I struggle to get work to fill up the whole day. In honest time, i get about 3-5 billable hours a day. Am I going to get in trouble or fired over this?? I am putting my best efforts when I do get work and I ask for work sometimes. At this point I feel like I am being annoying too…

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

When your boss gives you 48 hours (clock hours not billable hours) to produce a viable objection to a MTD/compel arbitration in a complex commercial lit case, which is not my practice area, what kind of result is he expecting? From scratch, no template.

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

It’s hard to trust the partners/leadership when they want us to return to office as being better when we increase offshoring? Also, the pressure on billable hours when all that really matters is how much our fixed labor costs vs. how much we can bill (which is usually fixed fee or at least a range) and the fixed labor costs of offshoring is significantly cheaper so the hours don’t matter. Am I mistaken by this viewpoint?

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?

What’s the deal with RFPs? I’ve spent countless [non-billable] hours on several of them only to find out that I’m not included in the actual proposal (the document sent to the client showcasing the proposed case team). Is this normal?

What's live in Nashville for new year's eve? My friends are flying in and I want to take them somewhere fun. Clubs, bars, parties, shows we're up for anything

What ITTS - Private companies do？

Anyone that’s jumped to IB as an analyst, pre-mba. How did you go about networking an interview ?

What is the salary of Sr. consultant 2 and Sr. consultant 3 in ey?

What’s a typical career growth route for an FP&A analyst? And outside of Business Partnering and Excel skill sets what else is needed to move up the ladder?

To my writers/content creators and alike, how much do you charge to write content for someone? And do you charge them hourly or by cents per word? I’ve been offered a small contract for 10 hours per week and not sure what my rate should be or how I should set it up

I have an offer from Mayer Brown as a senior associate and they have told me that a guaranteed full EOY bonus is not standard or a market ask. My offer is in a non-NY office and the posting for this position has been up for six months.

Any recent laterals out there who moved in the last few months who received a guaranteed full EOY bonus and/or signing bonus for a corporate senior associate role?

Any insight into potential salary range for a Wealth Brokerage Trader at Truist located in Charlotte NC?

Anyone else holding out to 1 year AT LEAST, in order to get long term cap gains tax rate? 🙏🏻 every day passing is a day closer

Align to non-M&A offering but do a lot of work in the space (DD, integrations). B4 recruiter reached out and wants me to provide resume@for review with hiring partner. Does it work if I provide a bio with summary of M&A projects (client names removed) instead of a traditional resume? Also plan to list education and previous roles.

How do you guys think about placing limits on your watch collection?

Does anyone have a Farer watch? Or does anyone have thoughts on them?

Let’s say you’re the main character of some action movie. Think military / Jason Bourne / Ethan Hunt type of guy. You’re only bringing one watch with you on your mission across the world. Streets of Paris, African jungles, Southeast Asia, and wherever else the mission takes you. What watch you wearing?

Who wants to start a DAO and buy time shares (literally lmao) in a watch.

Can rotate throughout the year 😂

Hypothetical: hiring for a Lead Product Designer position to own direction of a data heavy saas app, would you hire someone that pivoted into UX from marketing and graduated HCI masters recently or someone who had a web designer/dev freelance & UX consulting background?

Just based on those two points.

Can you share what are some questions you're having rn that would affect the decision?

Holding 2 offers. 1 from Accenture and One from Hexaware. Hexaware paying 2lakhs more than Accenture. Which one I Can choose. Accenture taken me for Cloud. Hexaware taken me for Devops. Friends pls suggest. Confused lot

Looking to change up my MO when it comes to organization. Litigator Hive Mind, how do you guys keep yourselves organized? Do you have a particular system? Looking for more tactile methods (post its, whiteboards, journals, etc.). The whole outlook calendar thing (while necessary) gets very cluttered very quickly and I don’t find it really advances the ball for me much.

Got screamed at again by my partner today. The other partners are wonderful. Glad I've been talking to a couple of recruiters as I'm now officially ready to move. Sigh😕.

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

Im a third year and my current firm isn't bad and I'm pretty comfortable here. Im satisfied most of the time. There is one firm I've been keeping my eyes on because of its similarities to where I currently am (nice people, similar hours, culture).

Im a bit burned out now and I would love to take a long break. I'm hoping I can take a break (2 months) between the transition but is this a good reason to move though? Would you move in my situation? Im sure there will be a signing bonus.

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…)

How does one go about switching practice groups within the same firm? I was under the impression it’s better to lateral elsewhere but I do really like my firm, just not the work in this practice area. Want to switch from transactional to litigation.

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?

Leaving after one year to another biglaw firm?

What’s the deal with RFPs? I’ve spent countless [non-billable] hours on several of them only to find out that I’m not included in the actual proposal (the document sent to the client showcasing the proposed case team). Is this normal?

Is it worth leaving big law for a FAANG job? Probably a $50k pay cut plus lose the partner track option for future. I'm probably 3 years away from making partner. Have a friend there already. Heard work life balance is better but comp not as good and lower ceiling. Thoughts?

When and how do you push back on people senior to you? Fifth year dealing with supersenior associate (11th year) who completely lacks good judgment & common sense. One of those super smart but impractical types. As just one example, he recently called me to tell me to call someone who’s on vacation and ask them to send a calendar invite. I offered to send myself but apparently that wouldn’t work (presumably because it would be efficient & make sense.) At what point (and how) do I Just Say No?

Any insight on Hunton Andrews Kurth Real Estate practice group? Work life balance, type of people in the group etc. Anything at all would be helpful!

Are all you associates getting crushed right now? I haven’t had a breather in months. No amount of bonus seems worth it right now

Any thoughts on NRF (Norton Rose Fulbright) in D.C.?

Any insight on Latham NY capital markets culture?

I’m a junior and I have the opportunity to join the employment and benefits group as a specialist. The alternative is VC/M&A.

I’m under the impression that joining the EB group will still give me decent exit ops, has more manageable workflow (less unexpected dumpster fires like in deal-work), and a somewhat better WLB because of my previous point.

Any disagreement/any other things I should consider before deciding?

Any insight on Brewer (either office, generally curious about the firm). I assume comp after year 1 is discretionary, rather than lock-step, given the size of the firm. Would appreciate happiness, horror stories, of whatever “firm culture” falls between the two. DM me if you don’t want to share publicly.

Are there any books or other resources that mid levels/seniors/counsel/partners on here have found helpful for the project management / managing junior attorney aspects of your job?

I am not finding a lot of stuff written for lawyers specifically , but there is a lot directed at “managers” in business generally that I imagine could be applicable.

I’m in a tough spot—still waiting for conflicts to clear and out of the blue, a partner reached out regarding a project that they’ve staffed me on. They want my availability to begin working on the matter next week…how do I handle this? I haven’t given notice, but expect to do so soon…I don’t think it’s prudent to start a new matter esp. since I know I’m leaving…but I can’t turn down work with a straight face (especially because my hours are in “checked out” mode)…