No questions asked! Guides for Lawyers Improve your Business. Minding billable time Adam Pascarella , in an article offering advice to junior associates , listed determining your goals as the first order of business when deciding to work for big law. Conclusion First-year associates will probably count billable time instead of sheep while trying to fall asleep.
PracticePanther more from PracticePanther. Related Articles. See All Blog Posts. Improve your Business. Law practice management software made easy We help you do right by your clients and get you home for dinner on time. Already have an account? Studies show that, on average, lawyers actually work three hours for every two billed.
Therefore, to bill 2, hours per year, or 40 hours per week, a lawyer needs to work 12 hours a day, five days a week. Typical associate chargeable hours in mega firms and large firms are 2,, per year.
When I worked at a law firm, I generally had at least an 8—6 or 9—7 hour day, with some regular exceptions going longer and very few exceptions going shorter. Biglaw is also not worth it, even for big money. Starting salary has increased so substantially because white shoe firms set the rate and try to out-do each other year over year for that top talent and all other firms try to play catch up. The majority of lawyers work full time, and many worked more than 40 hours per week.
Lawyers who are in private practice and those who work in large firms often work additional hours, conducting research and preparing and reviewing documents. In some law firms, partners are expected to bill 2, hours or more per year—with many billing far beyond that amount. They need to find continuous access to work to generate hours at these levels.
As I mentioned earlier, it is generally much more difficult for partners to get billable hours than it is for associates. Billable hours are the lawyer hours that clients pay for directly. These are the hours that law firms want to maximize so that they can run a profitable business. Therefore, often the substance of our work is minimized to billable hour maximization. Legal representation is expensive.
It is quite normal for an attorney to charge for all their work related to your case. That includes emails, meetings, phone conferences, hearings, hearing…. While a lawyer will probably not invite you to negotiate over their fee, there are areas where they will agree to change their billing structure. However, you feel more like your career is synonymous with Better Call Saul.
Take heart that, once again, you are not alone. Working in Big Law requires a certain mindset. It is big, and it is structured. It is demanding in a way that only a few can rise to the occasion: billable hours, getting clients, working long hours. Big Law firms do offer prestige and large salaries, but there is that tradeoff; the average billable hour requirement is 1, per year 1 and in some cases can go as high as 2, For a 2, billable hour requirement, that breaks down to 11 to 12 hours a day Monday-Friday and three Saturdays a month if you include vacations, holidays, administration, and non-client meetings.
Working in a Big Firm is not for the lighthearted. It takes grit, commitment and sacrifice. But if you want to specialize, receive a lot of perks, earn a high salary, make partner, have more opportunities available to you later in your career, and you are willing to sacrifice personal time, have a top law school degree and a high GPA, this may be the path you choose to take. There are many career alternatives to choose from, almost an infinite amount.
A few of the traditional choices include:. These hold a variety of pros and cons, depending on your perspective. There is a fantastic article by BCG Search 3 that goes into more detail, but in summary, the not as big law firms will generally provide less perks and lower salaries but also may provide better work-life balance, better technology and more opportunity to make lateral changes.
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