How to deal with not being staffed on deals and seeing others in your year be staffed? When asking partners directly for work, they refer you to the staffing partners. When asking staffing partners (repeatedly), they say “thanks for interest, we will have something soon.” Weeks and weeks pass by and you’re always below where you should be for billable hours (at this point, very far below). All reviews are essentially perfect and no negative feedback. Extremely frustrating and discouraging.

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Are they in your practice group? Some firms give group-specific partner compensation based on how much their associates work, so they might be protecting their own income. Others simply have their favorite associates. Do you have a go-to partner?

Second A1. Partners usually don’t get involved with staffing beyond the senior most person. Cultivate relationships with mid and senior associates.

Central staffing is a mixed bag. I go to the staffing attorneys if my usual suspects are too busy or I want to work with a new(ish) face.

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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!

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

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How is productivity measured for in-house attorneys? Is there any analog of billable hours for in-house lawyers?

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I’ve practiced litigation in DC for about 5+ years at a larger plaintiffs’ firm, and am considering a switch to a defense firm. Is there any insight to how many billable hours this would require, and how much time that would actually be? For reference, the firm has a 1900 billable hour requirement and the partner said I would have “no problem” fulfilling that based on the work they have.

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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

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Any insight into Jackson Lewis NYC office? Compensation, billable hours, WLB? I would be a 2-3 year

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Weber folks! At what point do you become eligible for a yearly bonus and how is your bonus determined? Any tie to billable hours?

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Did the billable hours bonus not get paid out today? Or is it to be paid in the next check?

I heard so much about minimum billable hours here by staff. I never saw that email. Is it inly for certain groups?

Does anyone have experience working for a ALSP? How does compensation work (pay and benefits)? Are you an employee or technically an IC? Do you have billable requirements like at a firm? How do you think it prepared you to potentially move in house? I'm currently at a firm but thinking of taking a position with an ALSP but my goal is to go in house.

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To the post below- it is quiet, so I’ll bite!
Does anyone know about associate compensation at the regional Atlantic Canada firms? The the big ones have all been posting job ads for associates in the 3-5 year range. Any insight on salary and billable targets?

How many billable hours per week is considered at capacity? I’m getting pushback on boundaries I’m setting about additional matters and marketing work from my firm when I’ve been billing 60-75 hours per week for the last 6 weeks, and I’m still behind on my work. I feel like it’s reasonable to not kill myself further to fit in more/turn things around faster at this point, but am I being unreasonable? I expect my workload to remain at this level through the end of the year at least.

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Mental health is busy, looking for tips to help manage tasks, currently I supervise 12 therapists in 3 different departments that are all different with unique dynamics in each dept. I still carry a small caseload on top of this. I'm struggling with my patients and worry I am not giving them my best, I wax and wane between focusing on patients and therapists. Looking for advice navigating this type od conversation with my leadership, we have all been asked to work on increase billable time...

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Have any of you taken "low bono" clients while working at a firm? I want to take on a low bono client or two but not sure who would get the money. This is a contract opportunity through a non profit so I'm assuming a 1099 will be issued. The per hour rate is significantly less than my billable rate. I would (obviously) like the money but my real objective is just getting experience/networking since I recently moved to a new state and don't have clients of my own.

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If you are a first year in a stub year, and significantly under billable hours requirement, do firms typically still give pro rated bonus? Do first year stub associates really ever hit their pro rated hours in those 2-3 months?

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My firm’s IT (especially system saving and file locating function) is so bad 😐😞 and they keep doing updates no one asked them for just to mess with the stuff we already got a hang of without doing anything about the issues we actually need fixed. Anyone else in a similar boat? Do you bill the client for the time it takes to fix the IT issue (or IT inefficiency generally, like time taken to find a file in a convoluted system)? Or is that supposed to be our non-billable time?

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Is it just me or the average billable work in infrastructure transactions has blown off steam in the last couple of weeks?

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Does anyone run a business in addition to their firm? I’m a solo and I’m doing pretty well with about 60-70 billable hours a month. Though that leaves a lot of downtime. Curious if anyone has any second businesses that require about 20 hours a week. Not looking for passive income or franchise ideas though.

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If you take vacation, is the onus on you to make up that billable time? If so, how do you enjoy long vacations?

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Just gamed with some guys (freshmen and sophmore). I am almost 30 and they remind me of those old days. Miss those fun and young friendships. All my friends married and have kids now.

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Is it kyndryl or IBM that recently started offices in kochi kerala ?.

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What happens in the offer interview in EPAM everywhere, please share details if any previously given.

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Would it be out of line during interviews to ask about agency revenue/growth or account health/trends?

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Hi fishes,

I got offer from 2 firms KPMG global for 6 lpa and Deloitte India for 6.5 lpa. Which one should i move for.

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Alright everyone, best thing that happened at work this week!?

I’ll start: finding a middle ground where everyone came away happy.

Enjoy the long weekend!

How many hikes are there in Wipro every year?

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Can someone please refer me for the Office 365 - SharePoint Online-Architect position.

Req ID: 2782290

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Where them 30+ ladies at? 25M 🙋‍♂️😉

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I’m a financial advisor (Series 7 and 66) and I really wish I would have become an accountant or investment banker. I like advising, but it’s a grind to find people to make new clients to sell to in order to survive. Are there any exit strategies for a successful young 26 y/o advisor to move to investment banking or a salaried advisor job?

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Know this is a long shot, but if I’m counseled out of one MBB, what are the chances I could get an equivalent job at another? And if not another MBB, thinking that a T2 or B4 could be possible? I’m not even sure I want to stay in consulting, but also feel like I didn’t get a fair shot at it

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What helps you deal with stress and anxiety? It's all starting to feel like a lot and I'm afraid it'll start hurting my client relationships if I don't find a better way to cope soon.

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Why would a luxury watch brand make/sell connected or smart watches? What is the business reason for it? To me it just kills the brand value. For instance I was a big fan of Montblanc but after I see their smart watch line up I instantly devalued the brand in general. Same for Tag (tag is questionable anyways), or Breitling. What is your opinion on this topic?

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Tentative plan is September with flexibility after. Haven’t disclosed how many days will be wfh/in office. Location is NYC

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Should I lease a car or buy it? Which is better? Does it impact the insurance rate?

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I'm considering applying for all the Contact Tracing jobs I keep seeing. Any clue what the pay is?

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Additional Posts in Big Law

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

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What do people think about Yale Law pulling out of US News rankings? Is YLS on the decline? Having trouble placing their students in New York big law?

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thoughts on clerking at the DE Chancery Court for an M&A associate?

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Any other first years out there worry that this virtual environment just won’t be able to teach them? I worry I’m not getting the same “plugged in” experience when I can’t knock on a door or walk into an office. Doesn’t help that my anxiety is heightened by feeling so isolated. The learning curve is high enough as is and I’m not sure I’ll ever learn enough virtually to be useful in big law...am I alone?!?

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What are your home office must-haves? I want to spruce up my office and have a stipend from my firm to help with office furniture and tech. I already have dual monitors, a decent webcam, and a ring light for video calls. Would love to hear others’ suggestions!

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What should your realization rate be as a first year? I have not gotten any negative feedback but my realization rate seems...bad

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What was the hardest class year for you? I used to think first year was by far the hardest but now I’m a third year and I’m really feeling the pressure to step up. I work in finance and at this point I’m expected to handle closing documents, manage first years, draft some portions of major docs, etc. I feel like I’m always frazzled, constantly second guessing if I handled something correctly and anxious to answer calls from clients/OC. The worst part is I think people can tell I’m a mess....

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1st year business law (solicitor) wanting to transition to comm lit. Tips?

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Partners - what was the most stressful year of your career? The year before you made partner? Your first year of partnership? The year(s) you or your partner gave birth?

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Dropped off my kids to school this morning and just felt unsettled. It’s so hard to concentrate on work today.

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I had a bad week and had to take a last minute week off - when I returned to work the mid-level I was assisting was all smiley and seemed full of care, but now I find out that she’s frozen me off all email chains on the transaction altogether. What should I do? Totally at a loss here

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Do you avoid going to shows and concerts that restrict use of electronics? I want to go to a comedy show during the week, but there's a disclaimer that they kick you out If you're checking phone/smart watch, etc. I'm also thinking of shows where they put your phone in one of those dumb locking bags

Want to get a sense check. Typical English firm salaries in London are about 70% Cravath (unless you're at one of the US firms that benchmarks to Cravath scale offices). 2PQE is around 165k USD + 30k bonus assuming 1800 billables. So comparing at a firm where you roughly bill 1900-2000 a year, you lose out, but if you bill 2200+, that's comparable?

Thinking aloud here - if you can find that 2000-billing firm, no sense staying in that payscale unless you have a shot at equity?

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Anyone else just sitting around waiting for the ax to drop? I'm a soon to be 2nd year corporate associate who has seen work completely dry up. My utilization held pretty steady around 50% immediately after shutdown, but August was below 15 billables with no appreciable work in the pipeline. Aside from letting people know I'm available and doing pro-bono/CLE, it's starting to feel like a serious "covidcation" leading to termination.

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I’m so f*cking scared of fucking something up, getting fired and then being unemployable…

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Worst sweatshop, STB LA or Quinn LA?

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If you are a first year in a stub year, and significantly under billable hours requirement, do firms typically still give pro rated bonus? Do first year stub associates really ever hit their pro rated hours in those 2-3 months?

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My goal is to save 300k by end of 3rd year. HCOL. Do you think I can do it? Or maybe 5th year?

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Anybody have experience with JD-specific mortgage loans? I know BBVA offers one

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My firm’s IT (especially system saving and file locating function) is so bad 😐😞 and they keep doing updates no one asked them for just to mess with the stuff we already got a hang of without doing anything about the issues we actually need fixed. Anyone else in a similar boat? Do you bill the client for the time it takes to fix the IT issue (or IT inefficiency generally, like time taken to find a file in a convoluted system)? Or is that supposed to be our non-billable time?

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