Biglaw Hours Check Class of 2018 Forum

[Anonymous User]

I could not agree with you more. I apologize for calling the job "very easy." That was a mistake. I meant to say the hours seem easier than I'd expect at v10 litigation--especially if these are total hours worked and not total billable hours after adjustments are made.

Also, I'm not equating billable hours with total hours worked. I'm simply asking, twice now, if those figures are billable hours or total hours worked. I understand the tremendous difference between the two.

This thread is titled "big law hours check" and everyone has been posting billable hours and not total hours worked. 550 hours for Q1 is no walk in the park at all.

It would be very interesting to hear total hours worked. As others have suggested, billing 45 hours per week can mean working anywhere from 45-80+ hours per week. Would be an interesting metric to see total billable compared to total worked.

[Yugihoe]

I could not agree with you more. I apologize for calling the job "very easy." That was a mistake. I meant to say the hours seem easier than I'd expect at v10 litigation--especially if these are total hours worked and not total billable hours after adjustments are made.

Also, I'm not equating billable hours with total hours worked. I'm simply asking, twice now, if those figures are billable hours or total hours worked. I understand the tremendous difference between the two.

This thread is titled "big law hours check" and everyone has been posting billable hours and not total hours worked. 550 hours for Q1 is no walk in the park at all.

It would be very interesting to hear total hours worked. As others have suggested, billing 45 hours per week can mean working anywhere from 45-80+ hours per week. Would be an interesting metric to see total billable compared to total worked.

That would be difficult to do, because no one really keeps track of total hours worked right (why would you have any reason to?). Would this just be hours in the office? What about all the work done away from the office and being on-call? Also, working from 8pm-1am at home is infinitely more sucky if you didn't bill much the rest of the day while in the office, as I'm sure you're aware. Same goes for weekend.

I doubt any junior in corporate is billing "consistent" 45 hours/week M-F the way you theoretically laid out, unless their in some specialty group with constant workflow.

[Anonymous User]

I could not agree with you more. I apologize for calling the job "very easy." That was a mistake. I meant to say the hours seem easier than I'd expect at v10 litigation--especially if these are total hours worked and not total billable hours after adjustments are made.

Also, I'm not equating billable hours with total hours worked. I'm simply asking, twice now, if those figures are billable hours or total hours worked. I understand the tremendous difference between the two.

This thread is titled "big law hours check" and everyone has been posting billable hours and not total hours worked. 550 hours for Q1 is no walk in the park at all.

It would be very interesting to hear total hours worked. As others have suggested, billing 45 hours per week can mean working anywhere from 45-80+ hours per week. Would be an interesting metric to see total billable compared to total worked.

That would be difficult to do, because no one really keeps track of total hours worked right (why would you have any reason to?). Would this just be hours in the office? What about all the work done away from the office and being on-call? Also, working from 8pm-1am at home is infinitely more sucky if you didn't bill much the rest of the day while in the office, as I'm sure you're aware. Same goes for weekend.

I doubt any junior in corporate is billing "consistent" 45 hours/week M-F the way you theoretically laid out, unless their in some specialty group with constant workflow.

Understood. Just thought it would be interesting as I'm very curious about total hours worked v. total billable. I understand the complexities of figuring it out though.

[jkpolk]

Understood. Just thought it would be interesting as I'm very curious about total hours worked v. total billable. I understand the complexities of figuring it out though.

This is a bit of a hijack but I think this is primarily dependent on how aggressive you are with going home when you have time to kill. With acquiring lunch, normal breaks, downtime, bio, CLE, non-billable meetings/emails, recruiting, etc. (and not counting commuting), based on my experience I'd guess about 70-80% efficiency in a busy practice over a year (and obviously 95%+ efficiency is possible when things get crazy for a short period of time). There are plenty of days I crush for 10 hours and go home. There are plenty of days I have 3-4 hours of work and stick around for 7-8 hours (for various reasons). Very very hard to estimate.

In a slow practice, way less efficient unless you are just working from home all the time.

[Anonymous User]

Not a first year, but 1050 since October (lateraled from a V10)

Last year was 1280 at the half year mark, and close to 2600 at the end. Glad I’m not there anymore.

whats different about the v10? Hours seem to be about the same.

There’s a noticeable difference between 2100 and nearly 2600 a year; the extra 400+ hours comes out of your weekends and holidays.

[Anonymous User]

For what it's worth, I am a senior litigation associate and consistently bill 2000-2100 hours a year (which with the right reviews/business case/reputation is enough to make partner at my firm, although I'd like to be somewhere like 2200-2300 for my partnership year). Most years this means 1-2 slow months (100-130; usually December and one other month), 2-3 busy months (200-250), and the rest somewhere in the 160-195 range. On a day-to-day basis, I typically get to the office around 9 or 10, leave between 6 and 7, and bill about 6.5 to 7 hours in the office. (I spend about 1-2 hours a day grabbing lunch, socializing with coworkers, doing various non-billable things, and wasting time on TLS and ESPN and the like.) I then go home, eat dinner, and bill another 1-4 hours from my couch. I also typically bill 5-10 hours most weekends (this goes up when I have a lot of briefs to write, since typically I try to push brief-writing to weekends so I can have an uninterrupted chunk of time for writing).

When I'm on the slower side, I typically do a bit less during the day and then have the evening to myself. When I'm busier, I go to sleep later, go to the gym fewer days a week, and work 10-20 hours on the weekends instead of 5-10. I had a 270 month once and it was hellish, so I don't know how people bill 3000 hours year in and year out.