New associate banter Forum

[thesealocust]

Just got out of a meeting with like 8 people and no particular emergency.

This, my friends, is a lifestyle choice.

[beach_terror]

Just got out of a meeting with like 8 people and no particular emergency.

This, my friends, is a lifestyle choice.

I love office meetings. Probably my favorite part of the day.

[thesealocust]

I love office meetings

Including those that end at 8:15 pm?

[Cavalier]

Just got out of a meeting with like 8 people and no particular emergency.

This, my friends, is a lifestyle choice.

At least you get a free dinner?

[beach_terror]

I love office meetings

Including those that end at 8:15 pm?

Better than grinding away in your office, yeah?

[thesealocust]

In a lot of ways, yeah. I'm full of conflict... I like and/or love a lot of what I do, and in a lot of ways the more I do the more I like it and the less it hurts.

But the trade of is rest of life... whizzing by without noticing.

[rad lulz]

Billing after dinner

Well technically it's non-billable marketing-type research for a partner

Yet here I am

[jeeptiger09]

rest of life... whizzing by without noticing.

This. So. Much. This.

[Headybrah]

Anyone recommend any books on how to be good first year associate or like how to do well in the law world?

[IAFG]

rest of life... whizzing by without noticing.

This. So. Much. This.

I just took 8 months off to smell the roses or whatever and you're really not missing much.

[20160810]

I need to inspect 2.5 terabytes of documents. Looks like I will be meeting my billable hours requirements.

[PirateCap'n]

Anyone recommend any books on how to be good first year associate or like how to do well in the law world?

This book isn't half bad (at least in the 100 pages or so that I read). I don't think it gives you anything groundbreaking, and the only reason I have it is because I had to use Westlaw points on something. It gives you a lot of the same advice that you'll hear from any lawyer, but it puts it in a pretty good format.

[reasonable_man]

At my big firm, V10, we have to account for a certain amount of time per day, be it non-billable or billable. If I have enough billable time to cover the minimums, I don't bother with the non-billables unless they're important like recruiting, etc.

Exactly how I roll - minus the V10 thing

[mr. wednesday]

Anyone recommend any books on how to be good first year associate or like how to do well in the law world?

People always seem to recommend The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law. It wasn't that applicable to my job but I could see it being helpful.

[20160810]

Given what a sham non billable hours are (lunch with friends? MARKETING!) I just don't understand what the benefit of tracking them is

[rad lulz]

I use "marketing" when partners want me to help em prepare for pitches n shit. It may not be "billable," but by golly if the partners told me to do it it must be worth something.

[Anonymous User]

At my big firm, V10, we have to account for a certain amount of time per day, be it non-billable or billable. If I have enough billable time to cover the minimums, I don't bother with the non-billables unless they're important like recruiting, etc.

Interesting. It's weird that stuff like this never gets discussed, when comparing firms. Cause I would absolutely avoid this [highlighted] like the plague if I could help it.

Huh? Why?

because i would resent this level of control over my life.* it's one thing to require a certain amount of billables a year, or even per month. it's entirely another to require a certain amount of hours a day. as long as i am meeting my deadlines, i want to be able to work 16h one day and 4h the next without anyone breathing down my neck (see face time requirements, a related concept). i personally place a huge value on this sort of flexibility, and it's critical to my quality of life.

there are plenty of firms (including biglaw) where no one cares how many hours you put in day to day as long as you meet your yearly goals.

i hope i am not derailing this thread from its intended purpose. i was just curious about the differences between billing requirements.

(*) yes i know all about biglaw vs "control over my life". they are not all the same.

At my firm, the system will auto-send you an alert every Tuesday if you haven't entered 8 hours of billable and/or non-billable time into the system for any weekday the previous week as a reminder to put in your hours. The email comes with an explicit note that it's not a problem if you in fact did less than 8 hours of billable + nonbillable work on a given day but that it's just a reminder to make sure you're entered in all your time promptly. All the senior associates I asked about it told me that noone is watching over my shoulder or checking my billing records or anything and many of them just ignore the message and enter their time whenever they have a chance to, even if that's sometimes days or weeks afterwards.

So the goal is not necessarily to make sure you're at your desk for eight hours a day or anything, but often just for housekeeping purposes. Non-billable codes are a bitch to keep track of though.

[20160810]

I feel like entering non-billable time should only be necessary if you haven't entered 8 hours of billable time. Logging the 30 minutes you spent reading law review articles on the shitter seems silly if you billed 8-9 hours of actual work that day.

[Headybrah]

thanks for book suggestions.

do you count time you get up and poo towards billable time?

[rad lulz]

thanks for book suggestions.

do you count time you get up and poo towards billable time?

If I bring work

[Cavalier]

I feel like entering non-billable time should only be necessary if you haven't entered 8 hours of billable time. Logging the 30 minutes you spent reading law review articles on the shitter seems silly if you billed 8-9 hours of actual work that day.

Sometimes it's useful when trying to avoid work. For instance, if I bill 10 hours and have a 2.5 hour medical appointment, recording the medical appointment means I have a "12.5" instead of a "10" next to the date. Other than that I think it's basically pointless if billable expectations are being met.

[20160810]

thanks for book suggestions.

do you count time you get up and poo towards billable time?

IMO dropping a deuce is a good time to pile on dem non-billable professional development hours. I like to print out an article on something related to my field and take it with me.

Related gripe: My firm's restrooms are not preftigious enough. Adjoining stalls is so TTT.

[Mount Elbrus]

My firm's restrooms are not preftigious enough. Adjoining stalls is so TTT.

PUN!

[stayway]

I already want to go home. I got a box of corporate notes and board minutes I need to review/organize/learn from. wtf.

[phonepro]

What are first year associates billing rates? Just curious to compare them to my billing rate.