I'm a first year currently at 100% target billable hours. My team hasn't been assigning me much work and I'm worried that I won't be able to meet the target (it'll probably dip below 100% since the last few days remaining in 2020). Does this matter? What if I meet 99% of the target billables? Please advise!

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If you are that close, just let your supervisors know and ask for work to ensure you hit the target. At my BigLaw firm, there is no wiggle room.

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A2 is right here. Go hunt those last few hours.

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Agreed with the folks above — just reach out to a supervisor (or two) to try and make sure you hit it!

helpful

Agree with A2 and C1 - it’s an all or nothing deal at my firm too. You either make your hours and get a bonus, or you miss your hours (by 1 hour or 100 doesn’t matter) and you don’t get a bonus.

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First year like few months in or 1+ year in?

If the former, it really doesn’t matter.

If the latter, tell everyone and beg for those last few hours.

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Do pro bono hours count towards your yearly goal?

Agree - pick up the phone and let people know! No reason to miss target by a few hours (especially if your bonus is all or nothing). You can do it!

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Partners or whomever can help me understand about billing and hours. To keep things simple, let’s say you only have one staff to work 1,700 billable hours a year on a $60k salary and you have only one job that and the rate charged to the client is $300/hour and an projected hours budget of 1,700 hours. So ideally you would have revenue of $510k. If the staff takes less time partners make less money and if they take more time partners make more money while the staff keeps the same salary?

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So I have completely lost interest in my area of practice mainly because I haven’t been exposed to many matters (our team is really slow) and I am the most junior in the team. So billable work is never constant. I feel like this has impacted my interest and stagnated my growth. I am thinking of moving into a different area of practice that I’m interested in. Has anyone ever done this? I’m actually depressed and I really hate being given work now. I have ADHD. Please advise

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