What does life look like for someone to hit 2300+ billable hours?

I’m a first year attorney at a small plaintiff’s firm. My firm has guaranteed me a $10k bonus at the end of 1 year without regard for my billable hours. They’ve also stated if I hit 2300 billable hours in my first year, they’ll add an additional $15k.

If my math checks out, that means I need to be billing ~45 hrs per week. But with only like 60% of my assignments being billable—how do I hit 2300+ and not die?

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Enjoy life. Don’t fret over $15k pretax for an absurd number of hours

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AA2: 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 not everyone’s in Big Law. Your number isn’t even a relatable point of reference for this poster, you realize that right “dawg”?

Choose life

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I am on pace for about that this year and do not pad my bills/commit fraud and I work pretty much all the time. Full day and then either a few extra early morning or late night hours 5 days per week plus a couple weekend days per month, no days off and no vacation for half the year. I’m overweight with back pain and almost constantly a little bit irritated by my wife and kids who I love to death. I could be taking better care of myself - I was able to have years like this when I was younger, but regardless - 2300 is a lot of hours. Make sure the reward is worth it or that you absolutely love what you are doing

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A3 there’s no easy answer - it’s a really hard time in life and the only thing that helped after promotion is I got some pretty good associates to help me out and I think that’s because billables were getting left in the files and they sensed I was probably on the road to insanity. What I try to do is go hard stop once family is at home around dinner time and until they go to bed, then I take my late night or early morning deep focus time and make the most of it. If I do the early mornings I am basically in a coma and losing my ability to speak and motor skills by about 9 pm so I go to bed with them, and pass out after reading a few pages on the kindle. You have to just win the morning or win the night. This job and a family life cannot be done anywhere near correctly in normal workday. You just have to accept that it’s not possible and try to stay in decent shape because your energy levels really plummet as you approach 40.

We have a house cleaner and try to do very fast easy dinners during the week. My wife works 37.5 hours per week and never more than that so she’s great with picking up the slack at home

Small plaintiff’s firm for 2300?! I’m in biglaw and ours is 1900….

Also, only $15 if you hit hours? That’s an ungodly amount of hours for a small bonus.

You can still collect 10 if you don’t meet hours— 5k more is not that much more. Remember that’s before taxes…

Just collect the 10 and go somewhere else!

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I wouldn’t put on shoes for an extra $15k at 2,300 hours.

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What kind of Plaintiff’s firm makes you bill? Bonuses should be based on how well the firm does and the cases you settle or played a large role in settling. Get out of there asap.

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See #8

https://joinfishbowl.com/comment_o9p73uqdun

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I practiced many years at 2 different law firms and many years in house. Although there are exceptions, the typical way to hit 2300 is to work on some intense trials (if you are doing litigation) or working on some big corporate projects. It’s much easier if it involves travel. You will be exhausted and will not have time for anything other than work. I would never strive to hit that number - a reasonable number is 1900 to 2050 - and that is if you don’t have any hiccups like an illness or other family issues. Find a good mentor either in your firm or outside who can help you navigate your first few years of practice.

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2300 hours and your bonus MAX is $15k?
Those thiefs. Get out of there asap.

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Just curious because I’ve never worked in a plaintiff’s firm before - what are the non-billable projects that take up 40% of your time?

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Intake is a crazy amount of time, and seems to fall heaviest on the younger attorneys - feel like these numbers are probably about right!

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That's a lot of hours

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Thanks for all the feedback everyone. Definitely gives me some perspective and thoughts to chew on. I appreciate you taking the time to help me out. 😊

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Think the biggest issue here beyond those ridiculous targets is that the intake/screening isn’t considered billable - Understanding many of those files wont get opened or bear fruit, but it’s unfair to not credit young associates for this all-important work.

Yeah they tried to do that with me and I was like, um, NO. I do at least 5 consults a week, 30 minutes each. That’s a whole chunk of hours that I could be working on cases actually billing. I’m not killing myself to sell the firm and sell myself short.

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