Big Law— how many hours this year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a parental leave this year, but my annualized hours were just over 2400, which is around where I always am. My high year was just under 2600. I always have significant nonbillables on top of that (in excess of 200 hours per year). Senior associate and up for partner.

Haven’t partnership votes already happened earlier in the fall? Do you mean that you’re up a year from now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So so low - about 1150. I expect that the firm will be having a conversation with me soon about it and I’m trying to figure out next steps.

As someone who has been there... get serious in thinking about what you want to do next and where you want to go, because it may take longer than you think. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

3100 is a troll for posting and running. But I guess he or she is so busy billing 20 hours today that they couldn’t enlighten us with more details. 🙄

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those billing more than 2000 hours, when do you spend time with your kids? Do you exercise regularly? Do you read books or have any hobbies you participate in regularly? Serious question because I am thinking of moving into a full time role after doing part time work for a long time.

I'm one of the earlier 2000 hour posters. You get used to it and learn how to capture time. I don't do some things I would with a regular M-F job, like watch football, or really any sports or much TV at all, but I still read a lot and spend more time with my kids than most people I know (lots of hiking, biking, play, bedtime, breakfast and dinner most days). It's doable, but definitely one learns to think about time differently. I'd prefer not to always have thoughts about billable time in the back of my mind, but all in all it's an acceptable work/life balance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a parental leave this year, but my annualized hours were just over 2400, which is around where I always am. My high year was just under 2600. I always have significant nonbillables on top of that (in excess of 200 hours per year). Senior associate and up for partner.

I should add that the partner I work most closely with billed close to 3,000 this year. The partners in my practice group at my firm are workhorses. They all do well above 2000 per year and most around 2400-2500/year.

That sounds like such a shifty quality of life. I’ll keep my 1800 billables, there’s no amount you could pay me to work like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those billing more than 2000 hours, when do you spend time with your kids? Do you exercise regularly? Do you read books or have any hobbies you participate in regularly? Serious question because I am thinking of moving into a full time role after doing part time work for a long time.

I'm one of the earlier 2000 hour posters. You get used to it and learn how to capture time. I don't do some things I would with a regular M-F job, like watch football, or really any sports or much TV at all, but I still read a lot and spend more time with my kids than most people I know (lots of hiking, biking, play, bedtime, breakfast and dinner most days). It's doable, but definitely one learns to think about time differently. I'd prefer not to always have thoughts about billable time in the back of my mind, but all in all it's an acceptable work/life balance.

I’m not a lawyer so I’m curious — how does billable time work? If you work the typical 40 hours/week for 50 weeks at a corporate job, that’s 2000 hours/year. Is there a limit to what you can and can’t bill? How do you track your time (eg, are you sitting with a stopwatch since some things require billing in 10-15 minute increments)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those billing more than 2000 hours, when do you spend time with your kids? Do you exercise regularly? Do you read books or have any hobbies you participate in regularly? Serious question because I am thinking of moving into a full time role after doing part time work for a long time.

I'm one of the earlier 2000 hour posters. You get used to it and learn how to capture time. I don't do some things I would with a regular M-F job, like watch football, or really any sports or much TV at all, but I still read a lot and spend more time with my kids than most people I know (lots of hiking, biking, play, bedtime, breakfast and dinner most days). It's doable, but definitely one learns to think about time differently. I'd prefer not to always have thoughts about billable time in the back of my mind, but all in all it's an acceptable work/life balance.

I’m not a lawyer so I’m curious — how does billable time work? If you work the typical 40 hours/week for 50 weeks at a corporate job, that’s 2000 hours/year. Is there a limit to what you can and can’t bill? How do you track your time (eg, are you sitting with a stopwatch since some things require billing in 10-15 minute increments)?

There are tracking programs that lawyers use -- most law firms use them. You can use the timer function on them when you start something and when you finish, or some attorneys just write it down. Billing time is the bane of a lawyer's existence. There is a lot of time spent tracking it -- just tracking those minutes and inputting it in system. You have to write a short narrative of what you did and some clients want everything coded -- like conversation with client is one code and reviewing a document is another.

Not all time during the workday is billable. Like doing time entries is not. Admin and office stuff is not. Going to your practice group monthly meeting is not. I would say at least one to two hours everyday at least has to be spent on regular office stuff that is not billable. So you're not getting to 2000/year working 40 hour weeks.