Nothing gives you billable hours that you didn’t actually work. The concept of leave in Big Law is a farce. Nobody cares that your grandma died; I worked from my grandma’s funeral. 15 years out, and let me tell you, the world is beautiful and kind out here.

You don't get a reduction in hours for bereavement. My sibling died when I was a first year associate and I was still excepted to make normal hours.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s like sick days - you’re entitled to then, but taking then has no impact on billable hour requirements

THIS. I am in big law and this is my understanding of how it works. Lesson learned, make sure you understand the policy. And I don't think it is unique to law firms. Other large corporate businesses I believe would have the same policy.

I now work in fundraising and if I go on vacation, my $ goal for the month doesn't go down. Used to be a lawyer and I don't remember my billable requirements going down months when I had vacation. I think bereavement time is just sort of extra vacation, that you are only supposed to get/take for specific purposes.

BigLaw is punishing. That's why I barely lasted two years. And I was at a nice firm.

OP said “earlier in the year” the grandmother died (very sorry), but that also means they had time to ask, get confirmation and fix it. Imagine if law firms had to calculate deductions to the billable hours for each associate. That would be insane and unfair there. It’s more fair when it’s consistent.

Anonymous wrote:At my firm we have a billable number to use for bereavement - for up to 8 hours per day for a few days at least. So, in our case, it does count (up to a limit of course). You should check to make sure you don’t have this!

Some firms have a nonbillable requirement in addition to billable. For example, I worked somewhere with an 1850 billable requirement with up to 100 of those hours could be for non billable work (such as client development, CLE training) and bereavement fell into this category. So we had a special non billable number we billed for it that could be used towards our 100 non billable.

OP I second PP's suggestion and double check to see if your firm has something similar.

This is showing to me a serious generational gap. Maybe the entire concept of how billable hours, bonuses, etc are calculated wasn't fully explained but it sounds like OP made many false assumptions on how law firms/corporate world/ jobs in general work.

If you miss time, whether it is for vacation, sick days, bereavement, need PTO because it's a snow day and your kid's school is closed, you are expected to make up that time/work. It never would have crossed my mind that "Paid time off" = readjustment of my billable hours requirement. For ex. if billable hrs requirement is 1800 billable, and I took 80 hours vacation (2 weeks) and 40 hours of sick days (5 days over the year), my billable requirement doesn't suddenly get reduced by 120 hours to 1680. Huh? I have to make up that time, whether I work more billable some days, on weekends, or even *gasp* work some on vacation.

On my team, the younger/20 something associates are having a hard time with this sinking in and don't think this is "fair" when it comes to vacation (we have one of those you can take as much vacation as you want as long as your work gets done policies). But that's the way it is.

OP chose not to meet his/her billable REQUIREMENT (which honestly is the minimum, not an exception). Usually bonuses are based on billing over the minimum. OP has a lot to learn. Learn it, work harder, better luck in 2024. Sorry about your grandmother.

At my firm we have a billable number to use for bereavement - for up to 8 hours per day for a few days at least. So, in our case, it does count (up to a limit of course). You should check to make sure you don’t have this!

Anonymous wrote:You should also never be within just a few hours of your billable requirement such that this would be an issue. People who just tick the box are first on the pile for layoffs. I always made sure to go at least 100 hours over.

Also, based on the initial post, OP apparently could have hit her hours, but chose not to. ("I thought that these were real days of “paid leave” and didn’t make-up the hours with other work.") That is *always* notices, and those kind of do the minimum associates rarely have long careers.

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s like sick days - you’re entitled to then, but taking then has no impact on billable hour requirements

THIS. I am in big law and this is my understanding of how it works. Lesson learned, make sure you understand the policy. And I don't think it is unique to law firms. Other large corporate businesses I believe would have the same policy.

You should also never be within just a few hours of your billable requirement such that this would be an issue. People who just tick the box are first on the pile for layoffs. I always made sure to go at least 100 hours over.

Sorry OP. But that sounds similar to other desk salaried jobs. If I take a sick or bereavement day, I still come back to all my work and have to make it up.

Would you have met the hours requirement if you had billed time on those three days? As pp’s said, you can remind them while you were out and see if an exception can be made. However, if you missed it by much more, they likely won’t do anything.

Former big law

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s like sick days - you’re entitled to then, but taking then has no impact on billable hour requirements

+1 that's just how law firms work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, billable hour requirement doesn’t change unless there is a formal change to your work schedule (you go 80% or have maternity leave). Sick days, funerals, vacation. Billable requirement is the same.

OP here: If that is true, in what sense is this “paid time off”? I checked the written policy and it says bereavement leave is paid time off “treated as time worked.” I supposed it doesn’t says “billable time worked,” but then what is the point of it? The policy has different amounts of time for different relatives. What is the point if the hours requirement is the same???

The point is receiving your base salary.

Just think of the billable requirement as always required unless you get a formal adjustment. That is why vacations and the like are so hard. You are missing days to bill.

At my firm, the only things that affected hours were if you went on short-term disability for an illness, FMLA leave, maternity/paternity leave, or a formal reduced hours schedule (I did that).