Do staff attorneys in big law have billable hour requirements? I just saw a posting at Paul Weiss with a pretty good salary and wondering what’s the catch

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I don’t know about PW, but the staff attorneys at the 2 biglaw firms I worked at absolutely had a minimum billable requirements. If they wanted additional comp/bonus then they had to meet various other billable hour targets.

Edited to add: the staff attorneys I know/worked with always ended up working and billing more than most associates, but were paid less $.

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They have hours requirements for bonus, I think. But it’s usually lower. It’s similar to paralegals.

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When I was an associate at Paul, Weiss, I recall many staff attorneys worked long hours, as well—though they were not expected to be “on call” like associates.

If you’re burned out (especially in the medical sense), I wouldn’t recommend any job in Big Law until you’ve recovered. There’s still pressure and high expectations, and the demands are relentless.

I would reach out to current staff attorneys at PW via LinkedIn to get more inside knowledge.

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I thought those positions were generally for people who couldn’t get an associate position. Like once you’re a staff attorney, it’ll be tough to find your way into big law as an associate, if that’s what you want. It’s much more work without any of the usual benefits of big law

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It might be, but do lots of recon about the specific firm and position first. At my firm, staff attorneys’ hour requirement is only 1,800 instead of 1,900 for associates, plus they do not get credit for all of the in-house CLEs like associates. They are also not eligible for ANY bonus. It can be an okay gig on some teams, but pretty brutal on others.

I’ll add that I come from an ID background and the conventional wisdom was that it was almost impossible to move from ID to BL, but I’m seeing it happen more and more. So don’t sell yourself short! As for the burnout, yes, some things are harder in BL. Esp. expectations for being available outside business hours. But some things are actually much easier. More administrative support, more bodies to jump in and help when needed, fewer clients fighting every penny of your bill (usually).

Just something to think about. Good luck!

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