When your boss gives you 48 hours (clock hours not billable hours) to produce a viable objection to a MTD/compel arbitration in a complex commercial lit case, which is not my practice area, what kind of result is he expecting? From scratch, no template.

I’m a stub year associate that has gotten very very slow (~1-4 billable hours a day). I’ve been doing some pro bono here and there. I’m staffed on a couple deals looking to sign in January but nothing with year-end/Christmas deadlines. Stay quiet or reach out for work? Would prefer not to have my holiday blown up, but also don’t want to give off the impression that I’m actively dodging work.

Hi ladies! Looking for insights on what’s it’s like working as an associate of some firms. Anyone here has worked/works at Fox Rothschild or McDermott and can give me some insights as to firm culture? Partners? Work life balance ? Billable requirements etc?

Been at my firm for 2.5 years, right out of law school. Worked in my practice area as a clerk for 3 years in law school. New Associate comes in right around my 1.5 year mark, they are 5 years out of school but have no experience in the practice area. They fail to meet billable hours each month. Never go above and beyond. Call out all the time. Can’t be trusted with large/important assignments. Am I right to be annoyed that there is only a 5k difference in salary between us? (I make more).

Any tips on how to keep my plate full with work? I just moved from civil legal services to Biglaw as a staff attorney (9 YOE), and I’m looking for strategies on how to get work from partners. They know I’m new and I have gotten some matters to work on, but I find myself out of billable work by the afternoon (and today, by 10am). I check in with different people each day to ask if there are things I can work on, but what else can I be doing (that isn’t going to annoy the shit out of ppl)? TIA!

I have a question about mid-size Philadelphia law firms. Does anyone have any insight about what life is like (culture, pay, billable hours, cases, WFH, perks, etc.) as a junior partner/senior associate/of counsel in the litigation department at the following firms: Montgomery McCracken, Schnader Harrison, Stradley Ronon, Dilworth Paxson, Klehr Harrison?

Has anyone worked on a outsourced GC model. Where for a monthly payment you do effectively unlimited work for them? I hate billable hours and prefer fixed monthly retainers.

If you had the opportunity to leave consulting and work in industry doing the same work (which you like!) minus the billable hours, sales goals, and terrible wlb but you would be in a location that is less than desirable to you, would you take the job? Assuming you are satisfied with the pay.

To the post below- it is quiet, so I’ll bite!
Does anyone know about associate compensation at the regional Atlantic Canada firms? The the big ones have all been posting job ads for associates in the 3-5 year range. Any insight on salary and billable targets?

M&A folks: What amount of billable time is appropriate to draft a pre-LOI NDA? Small deal (under $50 million).

Has anyone made a move from a boutique firm to Big Law, regretted it, stuck it out, and found success? I am in the ‘regretted it’ phase, but it may be culture shock. I started as a legal assistant for a solo practitioner 11 years ago and am now an IP Paralegal. I’ve never had keep track of billable time, and I think that’s one of the biggest adjustments.

Opportunity freelancers - What’s your goal for billable hours per week?

Has anyone transitioned from Tax to RM? Could you share your experience and pros/cons of the change? Really want to get out of client facing/billable work, but I like my firm. Thank you!

What is the bonus structure at your law firm? Associate hour requirement at my firm is 1850, for every hour over that you get your billable rate (i.e. if your rate is $200/hr you get $200 for each hour over 1850). To me this seems like its just overtime pay. Is this typical?

What’s the best thing for a new associate to do to get on billable work? I was mapped to an industry I have no experience in; how do I start gaining experience when I don’t have the experience to get on these projects?

Anyone else completely mail it in after giving their 2 weeks? Major senioritis for me rn. Probably had 2 billable hours today. Maybe

What is the typical turn around time for submitting proposals?

I have a lot of billable work I need to do but prospective clients seem to put deadlines within a couple days of the request...

Internal Thoughts: Being a lawyer is already stressful enough, but these BILLABLE HOURS can kiss my entire ass! Aside from going in-house can anyone recommend some other career paths in the legal field that don’t require billables? Thanks in advance 🥲

How accurately do you guys charge your billable time? Not asking due to overcharging. Asking because too lazy to keep up.

Frustrated with work as we all are. Single mom insurance defense litigation for mid sized NYC based firm. Base salary is 136k nominal bonuses. Struggling to meet work demands (deadlines, billable hours) and then also struggling financially. Just curious if what I am making is going rate, am of counsel after taking 6 years off of practice 10+ years practicing. Thanks!

Anyone have any tips about Ward & Smith, specifically their Corporate M&A group? Billable hours, general culture, etc. Anything appreciated!

Anyone here with ML take a small 150k account from me today? Sour puss here.

So general question I need to “translate” business speak into plain English. I have had 2 bosses now say they want me to ask more questions. I tend to be solution and Collaboration oriented and like to jump in. My problem is asking questions is hard because I have adhd and I’m trying to concentrate my focus on getting the information I need out of the conversation. So what kind of questions should I be asking? She saying I need to gain perspective on projects? Or. Please help.

Does anyone have experience developing a university relations strategy from the ground up? Would appreciate any insight as to where to start and any tips you wish you knew when you started.

I think the utilization metric is so flawed, yet it seems to be the number 1metric people rely to judge fdd staff. It heavily penalizes efficiency (if it takes everyone 5 hours to complete something what motivation do I have to be faster only to need to fill any saved hours with more work). Can you share any ideas on how to improve fdd metrics or perhaps share what your company does that makes performance great again.

Anyone here tagged in united airlines project ?

Hi, I am a government employee who is looking to pivot into private sector recruiting or general HR. However, I’m finding it difficult to break into a private sector role. Any advice? I have 5 years of full life-cycle recruiting experience & 8 years of experience sourcing candidates. At my current agency, I also gained experience in employee relations, benefits/TC, & project management. I led implementation of our ATS & assisted in implementation of our HRIS.

i’m an LNA/CNA making 16.50/hr, where i live that’s a lot for my position. i just started at this new job about 2 months ago and still barely making enough to afford all my bills. i’ve been thinking of doing travel/ contract with MAS medical staffing. does anyone have an opinion on them or any other travel agency?

Anyone else in here have ADHD?

Has anyone ever been denied their preferred location when returning from GSAP? Specially wondering about New York

How hard is it to recruit front-end engineers in LA as opposed to the other big American cities (e.g. NY, SF, Chi, etc.)?

Hey y'all! Currently a month away from finishing a design internship at a studio I really love. I DEFINITELY want to stay full time and need some advice on how I can make that happen. They mentioned during my interview that they were looking for interns that they'd wanna hire full-time, but I know that doesn't guarantee it. Is this something I have to bring up to them or will that be awkward? And how would you go about doing it? Will they let me know? Appreciate any advice anyone has!

Why is this bowl so silent ? I had been expecting some risk related discussions. 😔

If I’m not vigilant, I will now refer to myself in the third person as “Dada”…in normal conversation

Saw an email (accidentally) saved on the system between four partners complaining about my work performance. I’ve felt like I can’t do anything right lately, so I’m not surprised but it’s still jarring. Do I bring it up with these partners for “feedback”?

Hey all - does anyone have experience working with Pinnacle Home Care in Florida? Their offer seems too good to be true and I’m wondering what the catch may be

October Job Thread!

Drop any openings or opportunities you know of in the comments below 👇

Help another user!

In Texas, does anyone have any advice on what questions to ask general contractor in deposition? We represent subcontractor. I think I have my outline completed but wanted to know if I was missing anything else.

I have an arbitration at the end of June and a trial at the end of July (with pre-trial briefing occurring all through June), and various other cases that need attention, too. Any tips on how to manage stress during this time? Every day I bill 10+ hours and feel like I’ve gotten nothing done and ended the day with more work on my plate than when I started...

May be a silly question but more of a sanity check…

Party A (licensee) signed a non-exclusive license with B (licensor). B subsequently signs an exclusive license with C (second license).

Does the signed exclusive licensing agreement impede on A’s non-exclusive rights, OR is the exclusive license subject to the prior non-exclusive agreement? OR is the “exclusive” license automatically deemed non-exclusive but still valid?

Note: the initial non-exclusive license stands in perpetuity.

I am leaving my current role been in approx 1.5 years. Have assistant who is good, not amazing. Any ideas on a parting gift. She has Gluten dairy and nut allergies. (Ruling ourt chocolates which I have bought for the rest of the team) She is immunocompromised and extremely covid-concerned ruling out massage/spa or anything like that. She enjoys bubbles tea, I have got her a voucher in the past. Seems awfully boring.

What do you do when you are confident that your supervising partner is dead wrong about a key element to the case, and you believe opposing side will easily win?

Anyone have opinions on Tyson & Mendes? West coast market currently, open to relocation. I’m intrigued. Thanks!

Graduate from NYC law school in May and sitting for July bar. Still do not have a job solidified. Are firms going to start looking to hire more first-year associates?

First-year Struggling with Research: Stuck on finding any case on the admissibility of metadata. I imagine the difficulty comes from that fact that resolution of this issue likely doesn’t generate case law? Should I look at metadata more broadly such as just using ESI case law (assuming it exists)? Has anyone dealt with this before? Thank you!!

I have a partner who routinely ignores emails or responds to them several weeks later. He has to approve every single document sent to the client or the court, which means you have a physically go to his office to ask him to review something. Half of the time you go to meet with him in person, he’s either on a call or otherwise busy. I find that this basically creates more work and makes meeting deadlines extremely difficult. Is this normal?

My grandmother died and the funeral was Friday. I took Thursday and Friday off. I let one of my supervisors know what was going on, told the other two I would be out, and got all my assignments in order. I let another partner im working with know I’d get her a draft motion by Monday because I had a funeral. Then our client emails us, and she’s sending me emails like “call me in the morning to discuss,” etc. Can I assume that she just didn’t read the funeral part? No one acts like this, right?

How do you get better at handling discovery? I don’t mean drafting requests or responses or staying on top of deadlines. I mean handling all the little meet and confer disputes over narrowing scope, knowing what to push back on, knowing what to and what not to agree to in a protective order. I feel like I’m awful at it and I feel incompetent for asking so many questions about what’s okay, what we can agree to, etc. I’m fairly new and have been tasked with a lot of this lately. I feel lost.

I’m curious to hear people’s thoughts on moving up (particularly within biglaw) with the goal of being a star litigator. I’m very interested in becoming the person whose added value is my litigation skills, but when I look at partners it seems as though most of them are valued more for their ability to market and pull clients in. Is marketing the only way up in the biglaw model?

When citing ECFs in fed court do you use brackets, parenthesis, or nothing?

Pros and cons of using a financial neutral in divorce?

International arbitration people: I understand that lawyers practicing in France usually specialize in ICC proceedings, Londoners in LCIA. Where are the lawyers usually arguing before the PCA generally located?

Here’s my question: By day of week, any preference for when you receive feedback from the partner which warrants change/improvement on your part? Early in the week, late in the week, makes no difference? Thanks in advance.

I authored all of the briefs in a 9th circuit appeal. My managing partner did the oral argument. Opinion was issued today; and we lost on appeal. The decision was issued as “for publication” opinion. Do I add this case to my Resume/CV list of published opinions? Yes, we’re on the losing side (we lost below too; we were the appellant); but it’s still a published case where I was the brief writer. Would you still “claim” it on your Resume/CV as evidence of your appellate experience?