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Chief
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1600 won’t get you fired immediately but it’s not encouraged. 1800 billable is about the average at my firm. I got paid Cravath for 1400 my first year 🤷🏻♀️
Nope!
They’re probably in medium sized local firms trying to pass themselves off as big law. Most definitely not getting the Kravath pay scale.
I think the true averages are much closer to 1600 than 2000. I have some access to my firm’s hour averages through their internal presentations and reporting. Allegedly m&a averages about 1500 this year alone. My group averages around 1700 and this is considered very profitable internally. This is a firm with a discretionary bonus, no-prorate. I’ve been told the firm has many many many associates who will be no-bonused for hours this year and it is a regular occurrence.
This is the truth. Firms love to perpetuate the myth everyone is hitting hours to basically make more money but they still make a killing if associates even bill 1000 and are not going to let go of that.
Some BL firms like Weil don’t have billable requirements so yes you could bill 1600 and still get cravath scale pay
1850 for 180k. Happy with it
Um no. It’s not. By and large, depending on the firm, if they’re in a practice group like m&a, cap markets, litigation, restructuring, etc they will be billing north of 2000 on average. At least that’s been my experience at the firms I’ve been at.
First year annualizing 1600 👋🏻
Yes. Firms exist that pay Cravath scale without billable requirements. I worked there. I can't remember what my yearly hours were or if I ever even calculated it, but I'm pretty confident they weren't in the 1800-2000 range.
Specialists in niche practices like tax will have lower average annual billables and will still get bonuses because of the nature of those practices and the role they fill within the biglaw firm.
But the average biglaw attorney in good standing for partner should have 2k+ hours (as well as many other fine and not-so-fine attributes). Most firms set a loosely policed floor of 1800-2000, and then also have varying rules for what even counts.
Chief
Lols about my big law requirements of 2050, and doing 2200+ regularly. Sigh.
Varies but the reality is it’s very difficult to actually bill the amount firms want you to hit
There are some firms that pay Cravath but do not have a billable requirement. Cravath is one of them! Of course, many people at these firms bill more than 2000. However you could be someone at one of these firms billing 1,600 and not getting fired for a few years for any number of reasons. Specialists also tend to have lower hours so 1,600 as a specialist may not be that egregious.
This is wild to me. I thought requiring over 2100 was normal…
AA2 hits the nail on the head. No desire to make partner in big law. I’ll pick up a few years billing 1600-1900 and gladly see the door if they ask me to.
I make $180k excluding bonus and I have averaged 1600 per year for the past six years
What firm?? This is exactly what I’m looking for
I don’t think so.