What are associates at true big law firms actually billing annually? (True, as in, cravath scale, right size, etc.) how much is the bare minimum you can get away with for a full market bonus? Is it the horror stories of 2600 hrs? Or is 2100 ok?

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2100 is generally ok. But in order to bill that you will probably work more like 2600 or more

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What year are you?

Whatever benchmark your firm sets for a full market bonus is all you need to hit to actually receive that bonus. So if they say 1950 or 2000 then that’s all you need to hit to get the full pay out. Higher billers receive smaller additional bonuses for every 200ish hrs over benchmark they are, and the firm may take notice of that when it comes to elevations. “Average” hours is practice group dependent. My group probably sits around 2500 avg, but there are people that bill 2k and people that bill 3k.

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Oh, I’m sure there are a lot of people who abuse drugs to bill more. While maybe it’s not “padding” hours per se, if they’re actually doing the work for those hours, they are impaired as a result of the abuse, which is also problematic billing.

Even if someone only needs a few hours of sleep, I still don’t buy 4,000 hours without padding and/or drug abuse. There’s still an overhead on top of billed hours, so that’s basically working 50% of all hours in a year with no vacation, holidays, or even weekends off.

I billed 1957 last year for my full bonus.

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I bill about 1950 every year for full bonus, usually a little above market

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If stated mins weren't acceptable firms would raise or not have them

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Lot of people who never worked at the white shoe firms commenting here. Know lots of people in m&a at csm, dpw etc during slow years or years where they had bad luck on deals bill less than 1800 and its totally fine, even tow years in a row. it will average out to 2200 at least because busy years are so bad but its not as sweaty as people always think. i find that LW, KE and those sorts of firms are far sweatier.

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2550 last year

2,000 for me

Around 1800-1900 a year. Hours worked can vary widely by firm and practice area.

It’s often group dependent. Target is 2000, including up to 150 hours of pro bono and 50 hours of inclusion.

My group basically hits target) to make bonus and minimum to be in good standing is 80% of target. There’s a mix of people going over and under target. You can dip a bit below 80% for a year if work is slow but otherwise no issues, but you better make it up the next year. And you have to demonstrate you’re keeping busy with bus dev and/or pro bono.

The average is higher in some groups some years.

On average billing 2000-2100 of true-billed hours (not counting non-billable) for a full bonus, which is above the minimum hours requirement. Also engaged in non-billable firm citizenship-type stuff, but we are capped at how many of those hours can count towards the bonus. My firm has a small bonus increase over the market rate for every 100 hours over the requirement.

I find this completely manageable. I take several vacations a year, and generally fluctuate between really busy months and slower months, which lets me recharge.

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