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Here is the deal. I just got a job offer in North Texas. The boss wants me to bill 1500 hours my first year at a rate of $120.00 an hour. I would get 40% and he would get 60% of that. I guess my question is will I be able to have any sort of life with that type of expectation? Also he told me the first few months is tough to bill for a new associate ; is that true? Any feedback would be welcomed.

How easy it is to bill that will depend entirely on the office you're working in. In BigLaw, the thought is that you put in about 100 minutes for every billable hour. Assuming it took you 2 hours for every billable hour, you'd be averaging 60 hours a week with a two week vacation. Certainly not a 9-5, but definitely livable.

Thats 72k pre-tax IF you make the goal.

What happens if you fall short? Same deal? What if you go over?

Is this guy going to funnel you work, or do you have to do the hustling for clients too? If so, there's no way you get to 1500.

What is your debt like?

He says that there is more than enough work. He is a Solo in a small town who seems to be very over worked. I have about 90k in debt. 60 hours a week, I suppose that is fine. Yeah, that is 75k before taxes. In this economy that is more than good starting pay. Especially out of Texas Tech.

mmribail wrote:He says that there is more than enough work. He is a Solo in a small town who seems to be very over worked. I have about 90k in debt. 60 hours a week, I suppose that is fine. Yeah, that is 75k before taxes. In this economy that is more than good starting pay. Especially out of Texas Tech.

Erm, 60 hours a week means you'll be in the office 3,120 hours a year. Even assuming the normal level of coffee inefficiency, if he has unlimited quantities of work, you should be shooting for a higher conversion rate of working hours to billable hours.

Yeah, I have no idea how billable hours work though. Some people say 1.75 hours = 1 billable hour. If that is the case, then I expect to be working a lot. And barely making my 1500 hours. I don't believe he will be angry if I go over 1500; he might actually want that. And I think if I am making my best effort to make the.1500 hours he won't care if I fall short by a little.

mmribail wrote:Yeah, I have no idea how billable hours work though. Some people say 1.75 hours = 1 billable hour. If that is the case, then I expect to be working a lot. And barely making my 1500 hours. I don't believe he will be angry if I go over 1500; he might actually want that. And I think if I am making my best effort to make the.1500 hours he won't care if I fall short by a little.

If you have the work in front of you ready to go it shouldn't take 1.75 hours to do 1 hour of billable work. But then again maybe you don't have support staff.

Yes, it would be nice if I can get at least 1.5 = 1 billable hour. We have one secretary and one legal assistant. Then there would be two new associates and the boss. Myself included in that.