Corporate junior working at an AmLaw 50. I’m curious, what would you consider to be a brutal billable month? I’m coming up on what will probably be my first 300 billable hour month. This is my 3rd 210+ hour mo. in the 6 mo. I’ve been practicing law. Most of my law school friends in BigLaw are litigation and working stable180-200 hour months, so I’m trying to develop a frame of reference on how many 200-300 hour months corporate attorneys expect annually. Essentially, is this the norm for us?

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Depends on the practice area, but 200-300 hr months were not uncommon for me. NYC cap markets

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Anything above 215 and I was TIRED. Highest were 300ish.

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300 is brutal. 250 is bad but doable once in a while.

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Agreed. It's good to know one can grind it when duty calls for it from time to time, but after a certain point, there are diminished returns. Sustainability and burn out become an issue. It is important that between these grind times, self care and rest are prioritized, planned and actually done. There are countless sad, almost cliche stories of burnout of highly talented, hard working lawyers, all of whom believing that sheer will and determination alone would make them immune from burnout. The risk of burnout, failed relationships, depression, poor health and substance abuse is real. It took a serious health scare many years ago for me to understand and acknowledge this risk and to change my life. Please take care of yourself, especially if you intend to have long career in the law.

Wow. I'm relieved by the comments. I'm going into IP law, but this is probably going to end up in corporate. I am the type that I don't give up so I'll probably take on too much and end up with the 300 hours, but it's at least a relief to know this isn't the norm, so I don't have to if my personality changes by the time. Thanks for this!

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Don’t know where you’re located, but assuming large market like NYC, think about taking your year or 2 there and start looking at mid-law in smaller markets. If you don’t love the trade offs with regular 220+ months, many mid-law firms have hours expectations anchored much more realistically around the 2000 number.

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Like everything, it depends. I’ve been at my firm for 3 years now and I’ve never had a month over 220, even though most of my peers have all had at least two 300 hour months. My work has been lucky and has not blown up on me yet.

Yes. All corporate attorneys in the same practice. I do bill less then them annualized, but I’m still above our targets. So to each their own.

Is this based on a number of matters or the amount of work necessary to complete a matter?

I’ve actually been trying to figure out what the magic recipe might be to get my hours more stable. I’m on 3 demanding M&A deals plus about 10 other client teams with mild to moderate amounts of work. Our attorney work coordinator insists my workload is standard.

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