Junior lawyers feel pressure to bill 1900 hours yearly
14 posts across 4 communities in the last 30 days; 57% from r/biglaw.
“Why would it be anything else? That 15 minute break I took - I'm thinking about client work, billable. That meeting I had or admin task I did - related to the client engagement, billable. Hell even the training modules I did - probably helps with the client engagement, billable…”
“I’m just finish my first year of practice. I constantly told not to cut my own time. But then I frequently have my time cut and have to end up making up for it later on to reach my billable requirement. At my firm, when bills are reviewed and cut, we have the opportunity to…”
“I used to think the brutal part of BigLaw was just the number of hours you bill. The longer I’ve been doing this, the more I think the stranger part is all the time that never shows up anywhere. Sitting at dinner with your phone face-up because comments are supposedly coming…”
Multiple junior associates at law firms are experiencing intense pressure to meet high billing hour requirements (around 1900 hours annually). They describe feeling overwhelmed by the expectation, especially when assigned primarily to tasks like document review and struggling to balance those duties with substantive assignments.
SOURCES (31)
“I’m just finish my first year of practice. I constantly told not to cut my own time. But then I frequently have my time cut and have to end up making up for it later on to reach my billable requirement. At my firm, when…”
“I used to think the brutal part of BigLaw was just the number of hours you bill. The longer I’ve been doing this, the more I think the stranger part is all the time that never shows up anywhere. Sitting at dinner with your phone face-up because comments are supposedly coming “soon.” Not going to the gym because there’s a decent chance someone will need you in 40 minutes. Staying near your laptop on a Saturday afternoon even though nobody has actually asked you to work yet. Avoiding plans that ar”
“I‘m not in biglaw and generally work 9-6, no weekends. Last week a number of my cases had unpredictable emergencies that all stacked up, and I worked 12-16 hours per day basically the entire week. I felt like throwing up and had chest pains by the end of day 3, felt like I barely made it without having to get medical care. I get the jokes are “alcohol” and “coke,” but my serious question is how in the world do you guys sustain that type of schedules consistently? Im in good health and good shape”
“We have no target hours for billables, but I do know that I have hit a good number here in early October. Can I skate for the next 3 months? Have I made my mark for bonus - paid in December? submitted by /u/tanhauser_gates_ [link] [comments]”
“I’m a first year starting in the litigation department. Should I bill my time for reading the case files before research task? I spend a lot of hours just reading the case history and email correspondence before the actual research. Sometimes I feel like I’m reading the sample memos and motions just so I know what to look for, but the sample memos are not for the current case. Should I bill all these times to the partner? Would the partner feel like I’m dumping a lot of extra hours when the actu”
“Yeah this. The firm is already milking me for a flat fee, I don’t owe anyone shit. And screw the budget, it takes me what it takes me, not sweating if I got distracted for 30 minutes scrolling or handling something else.”
“What kind of admin tasks are you having that aren't related to a client engagement?”
“Why would it be anything else? That 15 minute break I took - I'm thinking about client work, billable. That meeting I had or admin task I did - related to the client engagement, billable. Hell even the training modules I did - probably helps with the client engagement, billable. Even if I'm waiting around for client support - not my fault you can't submit support timely, billable. You put 55 hours on my schedule, I'm working 55 hours and charging 55 hours. It's not that compl”
“Firm Billing Practices: Is it possible for a partner to bill 27.5 hours in a day? If you're in court for 8 hours on two matters, can you bill 8 hours on each (16 in total)? Just wondering if what I'm seeing is legal or not. submitted by /u/facemacintyre [link] [comments]”
Yikes. Is this total hours or billable hours requirement?
“Currently on track to bill around 1550 at a 2000 minimum, non V-10 firm in litigation. Obviously not great, but trying to assess how below average this is. For some context, my firm doesn’t really give any billable work in the stub year so we have a slower ramp-up. submitted by /u/coversquirrel123 [link] [comments]”
“How bad is it that I'm on track to bill 925 hours my first year? My firm requires 1,950. I'm in corporate. I had my midyear evaluations and they were all incredibly positive and partners had nothing but great things to say about my work product. What should I expect during my final year evaluation? submitted by /u/Adventurous-Royal855 [link] [comments]”
“Where did the number come from and why?? submitted by /u/crazytokkii [link] [comments]”
“Considering a position with large firm and never had billable hour requirement. Any tips? Was specifically wondering, How do you work out vacation time while meeting a 1900 hour billable requirement and trying to generally have more hours to hit bonus thresholds? submitted by /u/Angiegiell [link] [comments]”
“I passed the CPA (I live in the north east) a few months ago and I hit the hours this week. Now my firm is saying I have to hit 2,000 billable hours not just working hours. Is this allowed? Is there anything I can do? submitted by /u/lostandconfused2277 [link] [comments]”
“I’ve been getting in around 830 and leaving at 3/330 for a few months now and nobody seems to notice or care. Bill 2400-2500 hours. Don’t work with a single person in my office. This schedule works better for me honestly. I need to be up early for the east coast emails (I am in LA but work exclusively with NY). I eat breakfast/lunch at 330 then log back on. Anyone think this will cause problems or am I fine? No, I do not want to make partner. submitted by /u/solvanes [link] [co”
“What proportion of your billables are “easy hours,” like client calls for juniors where you don’t talk or due diligence/doc review? How many hours a day do you spend actually doing thinking intensive work? submitted by /u/BoxCool2844 [link] [comments]”
“Bay Area CA attorney, class of 2020 (COVID bar, rocky start), coming up on six years post-bar. Just gave two weeks' notice at my small boutique firm to move to a mid-size firm. Similar practice area, significant salary bump, better benefits, real support staff, and hybrid after training. My current firm has no billable requirement. The new one is 1650. Since I gave notice, my boss has been making little comments - he's "surprised" I'd go to the same practice area somewhere”
“I’m a second year tax associate at a V10. I’ve avg about 160 hours per month for the past 4 months. Looking for some insight on how this compares to other V10 tax teams and other second years in general. submitted by /u/YoghurtAlarming4290 [link] [comments]”
“First-year associate here. Dumb billing question. When I’m doing diligence, sometimes I realize I’ve been reading for a while but basically retained nothing, so I have to go back and reread it. I’m not on my phone, chatting, or doing anything personal — I’m literally looking at the documents — but mentally I’ve kind of zoned out. Do you still bill that time? Or do you mentally discount it because you weren’t really processing the material? I know nobody is 100% focused every minute of the day, s”
“First year in tax here. Always heard ppl in my group say we bill fewer hours than corporate (especially junior, but each hour is more intense, etc.). Wondering how much do tax associates actually bill to be considered average vs at capacity? On the transactional side, not tax disputes, if that makes a difference. Thank you! submitted by /u/Worried-Beyond-4013 [link] [comments]”
“So our office ranked below other offices in billable hours, so the head of our office told us to hit 60+ billable hours a week, whereas other offices just needed 50. I was among the highest billable for the month of August in our office, and the reason why our office was below others is because someone was off two weeks for their honeymoon, and two other associates did a week of PTO. So, effectively, I am being punished for their PTO. Whatever. Annoyingly, they told us mid-week about the 60+ hou”
“I’m hoping to receive tips to help get ahead of self care and household management before the long hours start. Thank you! submitted by /u/AliveOption4128 [link] [comments]”
“I am on track for around 2,250-2,300 if I had to guess. I have a little more non billable because I volunteer for things at my company that technically count towards your billable goal but are not actually billable hours. Don’t wish to get too specific as I don’t wish to narrow down who I am. I will clock in right around 1,800 billable hours most likely this year.”
“I lateraled because a partner poached me but I’m having a very hard time meeting my billable hours because I’m not getting enough work. Should I be concerned? I am almost 3 months in to lateraling. Im hoping the partner I moved with will advocate for me to get bonus. submitted by /u/Intelligent_Word_951 [link] [comments]”
“What are your annual billable hour goals, what level are you and what size firm (b4, top 20, top 100 etc)? submitted by /u/bub1998 [link] [comments]”
“For those of you in regulatory practices, are you hitting your hours this year? For context, I’ve always found it incredibly hard to hit my hours being in my regulatory group (we don’t do much M&A assist) and I wanted to know if it’s just me and I’m not trying hard enough or if it’s a common occurrence. Also, if anyone was a lateral, did you find it easy to make your hours during your 1st year as a lateral associate into a regulatory practice? submitted by /u/MaidenofBigLaw [link”
“Post-Bar Clerk here, going on my third day at an ID Firm. Currently, the expectation is that we will be billing 8 hours a day as an associate is expected to bill a min of 1900 hours/year. Currently all they have me doing is doc review, but I assume at some point I'll have more substantive assignments to do. If anyone has any tips I would appreciate it. submitted by /u/OrganicPhysics93 [link] [comments]”
“I’m a first year. Northeast region. Partner is worried I’m not going to meet the billing requirement and wants me to be billing 190+ for the rest of the year, which is simply not possible. Almost every month he’s had a discussion with me about my hours and meeting the yearly requirement despite being close to the monthly requirement when including non-billables so it’s not like I’m dropping the ball and billing crazy low. I’m talking 155/160+ billable hours every month on average as a first year”