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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

Yes, over 3000 billables. He was working 18 hour days for weeks at a time and 14 to 16 otherwise. He did not bill fraudulently. He was often stuck in conference rooms at least 12 hours a day, allowed out only for bathroom breaks as meals were ordered in, and then had to continue working after the meetings were over.

He did not get enough sleep and ate horrible food ordered in practically every meal and never got to work out. It was awful for his health. Billing 2400 seemed like vacation in comparison.[/quote]

Your DH is doing a serious disservice to his fellow associates, and to associates more junior to him.  He is putting out the impression that associates can and should bill those hours, when we all know that they should not.  You're not doing good work product at those hours, your health and family/social life suffers, etc.  [/quote]

I agree. But he did work those hours. It was very unhealthy. He was on one huge project plus two other cases that he felt he couldn't say no to because the economy sucks and one partner wanted him on one case and one wanted him on another, so he did both because he felt he couldn't afford to piss off one by turning down his work. Plus both cases were "good work."

I know he was working those hours and not lying because a) some of the hours were put in at home right in front of me and b) I sometimes visited him at the hotel where the conferences were going on (it was sometimes easier for me to fly down to see him than for him to fly home and we were trying to get pregnant) and knew when he and the others were in the conference room. They were basically in lockdown mode in this hotel, living and working there for almost a year. They would all complain about how many hours they were stuck in these conference rooms.

You don't need to bill over 3000. That's excessive. But it's pretty common to bill in the mid 2000s, and in this economy, with associates getting laid off right and left, it's pretty important to keep your billables over 2,000. Someone billing 2400 a year is less likely to get laid off than someone billing 1900. Of course, it's a collective action problem. Maybe if all associates tried to keep their hours around 2000 or lower things would be better, but in this economy, it's hard to push back.[/quote]

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