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7/8am wake up; 10 am coffee; 12 noon breakfast; 3 pm lunch; snacks; 6-8 pm dinner; work to 10pm - 2 am; I bill 2000+ per year.
I have a kid and want to try maximizing my family time in the evenings so I start pretty early. Wake up at 5, go to gym in office building at 530, take some time to shower, grab breakfast, read the news, etc and then start billing around 700. Leave office around 430 and then usually don’t do much work afterward. Also on west coast so that probably helps a bit too.
Every day I start out wishing I wasn’t a litigator. I begrudgingly open my laptop between 7:30 and 9 a.m. coffee or Celsius, no breakfast. Typically a protein bar for lunch while I continue working. Work until 6 unless I have to go later. Evenings and weekends when something is coming up or on fire. Gym 5-6 days a week, during which time I typically think about all the careers I could’ve pursued instead.
Employing this strategy, longer months allow you to hit 180-190 without breaking a sweat. Shorter months 165-170. This gets me a little past 2000 billable.
Clearly I do not enjoy this job enough to hit 2,400. I wish I did.
I wish I could bill for the time I spend thinking about different careers …and then scrolling through LinkedIn for a path out of litigation
Start billing usually at 9 (sometimes later up to 10), take only a 20 minute or less lunch (I can’t really work while eating), sign off around 6-6:30. Drive home or go downstairs if wfh, have dinner and spend some time with my wife and kids. Put the 2 year old down at around 8:00. Typically help give the last bottle feed of the night to the newborn around 9:00-9:30. 2-3 days a week i will typically have to sign back on to work at around 10:00 until around 12:00-1:00am. 1950 billable hour requirement.
lol! Are you writing a story and a main character is a litigator?
I’m in the office around 9 AM, and I eat breakfast while reading e-mails (~9-9:30 AM) so I start billing then. I take a 30-60 min lunch around 12 PM (I need that time to decompress!) and snack liberally throughout the day. I sign off around 6 PM, and eat dinner around 7:30-8:00 PM. I rarely am in court and also rarely log back on after dinner. Billable requirements are 1650. I don’t go to the gym, but I do a variety of physical activities like dance classes about 3xs a week.
Get to work around 9 (but sometimes court starts at 8:30). Usually takes me 20-30 min to get settled in and figure out what I’m doing that day. (Doesn’t matter because it changes every hour). I eat lunch around 12 but only take about 5-10 min off. I’m required to do 1960. Not actually in court often because we do complex litigation which means less quantity higher quality. Biggest cases are tend to be arbitrated rather than trial court.
I sometimes start billing before I arrive @ office @ 9 am. Generally do misc non-billable till 9:30 then billable work till 6 pm or so with an hour or so non-billable time sprinkled in. No gym time but I know co-workers who are able to carve out time for that stuff. I bill 7-14 hours a day. Have enough work to bill 14 hours x 7 days a week, but try to keep my week total below 50 hrs most weeks for my own sanity. Tasks vary greatly based on where case is in litigation timeline. Complaints, Answers, dispositive motions, initial disclosures, discovery and settlement negotiations each have their own flow but trigger more activity. Of the 20% of cases that go trial, it is 20 hours a day at least 2 weeks out, sometimes 4 weeks out for more complex cases with lots of MIL and trial exhibits/witnesses.
Thanks for your detailed response. I hope you have time to do things you love.
F
I tend to log on around 6-7 am and bill until 5 pm w/ coffee and a short lunch break (think 15-30 min). If I’m busy, I’ll work after dinner until 10/12 pm and/or 4-7 hours over the weekend. I’m track to hit 2400 this year. Don’t get to the gym as much as I should but I do take my dog on a solid 45 min walk 3-4x per week.