Big law partners and billable hours

[Anonymous]

How many hours are you typically billing a year now that you are a partner? What did you do as a senior associate?

DH is a partner at a mid-sized big law firm (vault 100) and still routinely bills around 2000 hours and works all in close to 2800 hours.

As a senior associate he was billing more like 2200 hours and all in 3000 hours.

Does this seem normal?

[Anonymous]

For part time? Yep. A little light maybe.

[Anonymous]

How many years has he been partner?

[Anonymous]

Lol who refers to the "vault 100" outside law school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lol who refers to the "vault 100" outside law school?

I had totally forgotten about Vault. Oh memories!

[Anonymous]

I think that’s on the high end of typical but it also depends on what practice area. Litigation will always be higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lol who refers to the "vault 100" outside law school?

I had totally forgotten about Vault. Oh memories!

Op - sorry I don’t know how they differentiate “big law” in dcum because he isn’t at like Cravath.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many years has he been partner?

Op - only partner for a year.

[Anonymous]

That’s typical for a junior partner with no book.

[Anonymous]

I've been an equity partner for 10 years and still bill over 2000 almost every year. Firms are increasingly focused on partners hitting their billable targets, even those who have a significant book. 2800 all-in is certainly high, but not unheard of. He's on a path to a very high income though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been an equity partner for 10 years and still bill over 2000 almost every year. Firms are increasingly focused on partners hitting their billable targets, even those who have a significant book. 2800 all-in is certainly high, but not unheard of. He's on a path to a very high income though.

Op - at some point isn’t it inefficient for partners to be writing or rewriting the bulk of what associates do? I feel like my DH is constantly complaining about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been an equity partner for 10 years and still bill over 2000 almost every year. Firms are increasingly focused on partners hitting their billable targets, even those who have a significant book. 2800 all-in is certainly high, but not unheard of. He's on a path to a very high income though.

Op - at some point isn’t it inefficient for partners to be writing or rewriting the bulk of what associates do? I feel like my DH is constantly complaining about this.

(DP) yeah obviously it’s inefficient but it’s not really solvable. We aren’t going to put mediocre associate work product out the door.

[Anonymous]

For our single tier partnership the US partners bill on average around 1300-1400 per year.

But I agree with PP that every firm, ours included, is now berating partners to bill more.

2000+ is a lot for a partner to be billing, but for his first year (esp if he’s really just an income partner) it’s not a huge outlier. It suggests he’s likely in a service role without his own book and not devoting much to BD. That’s fine, if he expects to inherit a book or if he’s happy with that role long term. But if he wants to eventually be the guy billing 1000 hours he should be focusing more on clients and less on practicing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been an equity partner for 10 years and still bill over 2000 almost every year. Firms are increasingly focused on partners hitting their billable targets, even those who have a significant book. 2800 all-in is certainly high, but not unheard of. He's on a path to a very high income though.

Op - at some point isn’t it inefficient for partners to be writing or rewriting the bulk of what associates do? I feel like my DH is constantly complaining about this.

Yes, and unfortunately, this is now your DH's problem to solve. He will need to help hire and train good associates. This can take years to cultivate a following. Then he'll need to make sure if they are actually good they don't get snatched up by more powerful partners. Finally, most of the good ones will leave (because they can have better lives/opportunities elsewhere) or make partner themselves, so it's a constant cycle of finding and cultivating new talent which quite frankly may be more work than just doing it yourself?

[Anonymous]

It is completely variable by seniority, practice group, leadership, work habits. But, yes, 2000 hours is in the range of normal.

If you’re looking for something to complain about, this ain’t it.