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How are hours at Simpson Thacher LA?
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Coach
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Subject Expert
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Enthusiast
30 cases in biglaw is nuts. Most people I know work on about 3-5 at any given time. If you’re doing complex lit and not just high volume ID cases I’m not sure how you can work on 30 cases. I billed 1700 hours on one case alone last year.
4-5 max and that’s if 3-4 of them are quite small. If you’re at 30, I’m assuming you are not at the high end of the market or are in a products liability practice.
Subject Expert
I was thinking mid market products liability/warranty
Coach
It really depends on the practice and on how the teams are staffed.
If it’s high volume stuff (mass tort, some type of similar thing where there are similar cases for a client, with occasional sophisticated issues) and a lot of the drafting is repackaging other drafts/ the job is mostly deadline and project management, then this seems incredibly manageable in terms of case numbers. Doubly true if a staff attorney (or someone other than you) is managing document discovery.
But if it’s cases with tons of documents (like white collar/false claims/similar), novel issues, class cert. proceedings, or some other area where each individual case is a ton of work, then yeah 30 is impossible. Sometimes 3 is impossible if the cases are large/busy enough.
Yeah this only makes sense if you are working product liability or mass torts - anything else is not feasible
Coach
That’s a little bit. Ask others in your firm how much they’re handling, and you’ll quickly realize you’re nowhere near that amount.
I did. Other associates at my level in litigation said they typically handle under 10 matters at a time. That’s why I’m here asking if my situation is unusual generally in BL or just unusual at my firm.
Mentor
How big and how hot are the cases?
Subject Expert
Have never been on more than 2 cases
I have 5 active patent lit cases and that’s a lot for me. Usually I only handle 2-3 active cases at one time.
5-15 for me, 3rd year
Mentor
About same for me - 6 yoe
High volume torts cases. I’m a 2nd year with 30ish cases. If you are doing the same thing, this is pretty standard.
Coach
This sounds like an absurd number to me, but it depends what those cases are and how much work there is. I’m getting crushed by about 8 cases right now and there’s no way I could handle 30, but that’s also because some days I have 16 hours of work for one of those cases alone.
Plaintiff or defense work? This makes a huge difference. If defense, firm wants to maximize hourly billing and keep client happy, so fewer cases are more practical. If plaintiff work, you’re going only getting paid if you win/settle so you need a higher volume of cases to reach target numbers.
I’m a third year, BL lit plaintiff associate and have anywhere from 65-90 active files at a time, and firm wants us to have at least 10-15 cases in suit at any given time. And I don’t work with a partner - these are all mine.
Enthusiast
“BL lit plaintiff associate” seems like an oxymoron. Are there Amlaw firms with substantial plaintiff-practices outside of patent prosecution? This genuinely makes no sense to me.