May 13 HOURS checkin Forum

[Anonymous User]

TX first year in real estate

620 billable
60 pro bono


Jan/Feb were super slow- I put up maybe 100 hrs in each. Busy since then.

[Big Shrimpin]

Estimated efficiency (hours worked to get each hour billed)?

I'm really efficient when I'm busy, probably up around 80-85ish%.

But I've been slow, so my efficiency has gone way down.

There is definitely, at least for me, a "momentum" with work. I find it harder to stave off procrastination when busy, mostly out of fear of forgetting to do something. But when slow, YOLO/IDGAF.

[Anonymous User]

Estimated efficiency (hours worked to get each hour billed)?

11:40 pm first year NYC lit associate here.

Probably 10 billables per 12 hours worked. Maybe a little less -- 9.5 per 12? It helps being staffed on a couple of huge matters that always have tasks in the pipeline.

[ChardPennington]

Estimated efficiency (hours worked to get each hour billed)?

I'm really efficient when I'm busy, probably up around 80-85ish%.

But I've been slow, so my efficiency has gone way down.

There is definitely, at least for me, a "momentum" with work. I find it harder to stave off procrastination when busy, mostly out of fear of forgetting to do something. But when slow, YOLO/IDGAF.

This describes me pretty well. If there's nothing on my plate I'm constantly stopping the clock to check espn, but if I'm slammed I get things done quickly-ish

[09042014]

.8 hours worked for each billable.

ABP A always B be P Padding

/ this is a joke nerds don't report me bros.

[thesealocust]

Brutally efficient - I'd guess half my work is fixed fee anyway, and 70%+ devolves quickly into "must go faster must get done ASAP no time to think just hit send WHERE ARE MY DOCUMENTS" shenanigans.

I've billed time to over a hundred projects this year

(happily, I'm in a bizarre niche group with some new and unusual projects 1st and 2nd quarter, so my war stories aren't typical, not even for me...)

[Anonymous User]

First year at, let's call it NLJ250:

Jan - Apr only
Billable: 674
Firm Billable: 13
Pro Bono: 6.5
Non-Billable: 170

[Anonymous User]

Just shy of 900 billed/20 pro bono.

Running at about 85% efficiency-- probably closer to 80% if you count nonbillable on weekends that I don't log.

[Anonymous User]

To the person who asked about why not politely turn down work:

1 - We are gunners/type A by nature, as much as we want to deny it.

2 - ITE, better to be busy than slow. Especially since 1st years can't offer too much more than time/effort, you don't want to be the one who is lazy.

3 - Often times, it's only a few projects that keep you insanely busy, if you're on a big M&A or IPO for example. Once you're on the team, you're on the team and you can't really turn down work within that deal.

4 - If others on your team are busy, you want to help them and not be the guy who skips out on his team.

As far as efficiency goes, I would say 9.5 out of 12 is a good guess for whomever said that when it's really busy.

[MCFC]

For whatever it's worth, it seemed pretty clear to me that the comment about turning down work was sarcasm.

[thesealocust]

For whatever it's worth, it seemed pretty clear to me that the comment about turning down work was sarcasm.

+1, it was a direct reference to a conversation stream in one of the other biglaw Q&A threads.

[wert3813]

For whatever it's worth, it seemed pretty clear to me that the comment about turning down work was sarcasm.

+1, it was a direct reference to a conversation stream in one of the other biglaw Q&A threads.

Yeah. I thought the post afterwards to DF made it clear, but if not apologies it was sarcasm.

[Anonymous User]

I read it too quickly. My bad. Keep billing, everyone!