Associate at law firms billing low hours

[Anonymous]

It is a sign that you are not thought of for work, or that there is little work in your area. I would talk to your mentoring partner about more work, or start to look somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

You should definitely worry. I'd guess you'll get 3 months, 4 max, once they start to "counsel you out." 6 months is overly optimistic. You probably won't get anything in writing, unless you're already pregnant. If you are already pregnant, this is the one type of situation where I would probably start telling people at work early.

Agree with this advice. Especially with a bigger firm, pregnancy now might actually buy you a couple of years (I have seen this.) Not sure I'd purposely take that gamble though.

How profitable is your firm overall? If the firm is overall quite profitable, and you are in fact in a new practice area/working for a new partner, I think the window for your billables to go up is longer - even 2-3 years. If the firm is just doing meh, then I agree with expecting 3 months notice (6 month if generous). Worst case scenario here, the firm more broadly is cutting, then you may not even get 3 months notice.

When is your annual review? I would listen carefully. If your review is particularly critical, step up the job search. Also, take a review in which you are told that all is fine and you are on track with a grain of salt, particularly if the review is being delivered by the developing practice partner that you work for.

BTW, I am speaking from experience. I survived and you will too. I started looking long before I was given the 3 months' notice. In fact, had an offer for a new job just days after getting the bad news. It was a very much sideways move that I wouldn't have done in any other circumstance, worked out in the end, and several job changes later, this is ancient history for me.

One last word of advice (this comes from a different job, in fact the one I moved too which was a new office that took a long time to get my billables up): Can you approach your partner, tell your concerns about low billables, and ask whether you could volunteer to spend some time on a different practice area/partner with need? This worked for me. It worked for my new partner too, because he earned some goodwill with fellow partners and the office billables improved. FWIW, I was also in a fairly specialized area & volunteered to help in a new area. Law is not rocket science. You can learn. You need to be humble and be prepared to take direction from someone your own level or even junior to you.

good luck