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You should be mad at yourself for missing by 8 hours
A majority of ya’ll really suck. This place has been filling with ya’ll whinging on and on for the last six months about how slow everything is and how partners don’t have any more work to give out and now you’re all on here going after poor OP for missing target by ONLY 8 hours?!? Get out of here with that toxic bs.
OP, I’d be pissed. I’d go speak with someone about an exception. Even better if you know how many people in your practice area actually hit target, any non-billable work you did for the firm, and/or if you can show you were asking for work and there just wasn’t any. Good luck.
Agree but at the same time I’m an associate who has been checking daily for 3+ months to make sure I am going to hit the target this year, and calculating what I need to bill each month. It’s the name of the game, and the expectations are very clear year to year. If I thought I was going to fall short then I would reach out to pro bono or let the partners know the situation BEFORE the billing year closes. At a big law firm, there is no one to blame here except OP
How did you fuck up and miss by 8 hrs? I need a 200 hr December to make goal and am hitting 10 hrs/day like clockwork.
For 8 hours you can find it somewhere. I’ve had a few years where it was a mission in December to just get over the line but I’m always tracking it all year and have always managed to make it.
Bonus is tied to hours. Period. The rest may be for “discretionary” bonus. Also, you should be pissed at yourself dude…you couldn’t sprinkle EIGHT hours in the last few weeks. Come on!
Chief
I’d be pretty pissed unless the firm is pretty large. If it’s a boutique where your bosses know you and know how hard you work, that’s a bit different from a bigger firm that has to apply a policy neutrally to avoid the slippery slope of giving some people who were close the bonus but not others. Either way, I’d be looking to lateral because I don’t think you’ll get over that resentment anytime soon (and rightfully so)
This is why everyone needs to take 2 weeks vacation because these partners dgaf about how how you kill your self working and you need to take care of yourself FIRST always.
AFAIK K&E London doesn’t pay COLA unless you’re capital markets. Comb through top law schools blog / speak with recruiters and associates in London to get a sense of the comp.
AND this is why it’s not even worth trying! Next time miss by at least 50-100 and have a life because they literally do not care how hard you try.
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So you missed your billables target, brought in a negligible amount of business, and you want a bonus for basically just showing up for work and meeting expectations? Not sure what you’re salty about, OP.
Stop projecting A3. This kind of response only perpetuates associates feeling like shit about themselves and thinking that people like you have figured it out. My experience is that no one has figured it all out and everyone is making it up as they go, every day.
Any amount of business that is greater than $0 is more than most associates ever bring in to the firm. I’d bet the same is true for most NEPs. And can we all please stop acting like 2000 hours is an absolute requirement for every associate to get a bonus. If a partner wants to pay a bonus to retain an otherwise stellar associate (despite missing hours), you don’t think they’ll find a way to make it work?
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How could you let yourself miss by EIGHT HOURS?!?!
It does bother me a little that you get nothing out of the work you originated. I think even a little business origination should be rewarded, and not sure why so many firms don’t care to do that.
But missing hours by such a small margin? That’s on you 100 percent. Totally your fault. Own it. Learn from it. Don’t let it happen again.
Chief
The only person to be mad at here is yourself OP. 8 hours is such a small amount you could’ve budgeted your time to cover that pretty easily. I needed 200 hours after paternity leave and decided it wasn’t worth it but 8 hours?
Chief
I don’t care what you think. So whatever you say.
OP, more than anything, that at least tells what the law firm really is. They always bs about how important the so-called bright line rule is and totally miss/dodge the human part. They only care about your hours — all the "we are family" and "we care about you" stuff is just corporate and fake. Sorry for saying this but at least someone gotta tell the truth.
M1, to clarify, let's add "purely" right after "a" and "only" right after "for profit business" — for that, a lot of people don't know and misunderstand that anything else besides hours actually matters.
I’d normally agree about the “hard line rule” thing, but I think that the 20k worth of business + the stellar reviews justifies you requesting an exception. Can’t hurt to ask and you’ll learn a lot about the firm from their response either way.
Just curious — of the 20k you brought in … did you bill those 20k yourself? Or refer elsewhere within the firm? If the latter, I would argue that those 20k should count as “hours” toward your bonus. I.e., if your standard billing rate is $500/hr, bringing in $20k of business is akin to you having worked 40 hours on some other matter.
There is probably some flaw with that argument… but in spirit, c’mon man.
Chief
You couldn’t do 8 hours of pro bono???
How’d you let that happen ?
My own thought.
Law firms often suck at this.
My opinion is that an annual bonus should reflect a mix of factors, including quality of work and hours billed. And part of that formula, IMO, ought to take account years when work is slow and people will miss their hours. In those situations, the firm ought to change up its billable expectation for bonus time. Not to mention that the billable comes with a moral hazard and is a sucky way to measure work quality.
My further opinion is that the business you brought in probably should not be calculated into the bonus, per se, except as part of an evaluation of your overall efforts at firm citizenship. Rather, IMO, that ought to come in the form of an origination credit for the worm.
Manager 1, I severely disagree with you. In a situation where a person is performing poorly and thus is not being brought in on cases and the solution is not to leave the person hanging out to dry. Rather, a firm should act on the issue as soon as negative reviews start rolling in. In the first place, the person should be made aware of expectations and given feedback about their work. Afterwards the firm should take affirmative steps. The person should be reassigned to a practice area and work that suits their talents, paired with a senior attorney who is willing to mentor them, or else eased out of the firm. Leaving such a person in professional limbo until bonus and annual review time is really poor management.
I thought some firms have a margin. You might be within margin and get the bonus.
You should be pissed in my opinion. They are telling you essentially that 8 hours is more important to them than your dedication to their firm. Law is not sales, law is a field where a good attorney needs to do things unconventionally, duck and weave, bring in their own business, and make relationships. You could go work a sales job and work 75% less hours, hit your goals, and make a lot more money if they want to make it strictly a numbers game. If they want to bust you up over 8 hours then let them see how much 8 hours is really worth when it costs them 100k to train a new associate.
Also, when did attorneys become such sheep? I’m always so put off by comments on threads from other attorneys that say “no you shouldn’t be pissed, you’re supposed to take the abuse after you sacrifice far more than is required of any other employee in any other field”. Grow a pair, tell them the biz.
You should complain or ask for an exception. And if they don’t grant you one then you know how much they value you.
Why is everyone such a hardo here? Most things in a law firm are discretionary - all depends who you are. How were hours in your group? Were you the only one below target? If not, and everyone was below, weee you the only one close? Talk to whichever partner who has the most pull. See if there is anything she/he can do. I have seen on more than one occasion where a partner will go to bat for a star associate to get a bonus. It doesn’t always work, but you don’t get what you don’t ask for. It’s a one-time ask, so make sure this is it.
I’m sorry, OP. Please ignore the comments from others putting the 8 hours on you. It’s okay to be upset! It’s normal!
If you can see the number, make a note of your dollars collected. If that number is similar to or higher than years where you received a bonus, consider talking to someone you trust. The firm could budge (it’s a long shot, of course), but thinking through the hours billed/dollars collected connection and talking it through may be helpful. Also, you’ll be more prepared next year if you need to advocate for yourself.