Not making billable hour requirement? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I work for a mid-sized firm in Nevada. I am supposed to be billing 167 per month, but average between 140 and 150. This is my first lawyer job and I've been with my firm for 6 months. I keep track of a couple other newer associates hours, and have beat or am beat by a couple of hours per month.

My biggest issue is that sometimes I do not have enough work to bill for in a day. I go through periods where I am swamped, and then there are periods where I am twiddling my thumbs thinking of what I can do to bill. This month in particular, I got really screwed by the holidays, and the mandatory pro-bono cases every attorney is required to handle.

I am really worried about being canned for my performance. No partner has commented on my hours.

Any advice?

[Neff]

If I were you, I'd make it clear to the managing partner in no uncertain terms that the dearth of billable work is unacceptable and demand more hours starting midnight December 31st (200 hours per month is decent, but over 250 is safer for midlaw). A measly 145 is clearly untenable and you would do well to consider your options. In the meantime, you should seriously consider dragging out your billable hours by quadruple-checking your Bluebook citations and/or capitalizations of defined terms.

[gk101]

If I were you, I'd make it clear to the managing partner in no uncertain terms that the dearth of billable work is unacceptable and demand more hours starting midnight December 31st (200 hours per month is decent, but over 250 is safer for midlaw). A measly 145 is clearly untenable and you would do well to consider your options. In the meantime, you should seriously consider dragging out your billable hours by quadruple-checking your Bluebook citations and/or capitalizations of defined terms.

if you are not going to be helpful, be funnier

[gk101]

I work for a mid-sized firm in Nevada. I am supposed to be billing 167 per month, but average between 140 and 150. This is my first lawyer job and I've been with my firm for 6 months. I keep track of a couple other newer associates hours, and have beat or am beat by a couple of hours per month.

My biggest issue is that sometimes I do not have enough work to bill for in a day. I go through periods where I am swamped, and then there are periods where I am twiddling my thumbs thinking of what I can do to bill. This month in particular, I got really screwed by the holidays, and the mandatory pro-bono cases every attorney is required to handle.

I am really worried about being canned for my performance. No partner has commented on my hours.

Any advice?

I obviously can't speak about your firm specifically, but in general I don't think you are in a bad spot. It is normal for new associates to take some time to build up a consistent work docket and bill 170+ every month. If the partners were concerned about your hours, they will talk to you before taking any action. In any case, if you are really worried about it, you should be able to discuss your workload with the partners. Try to anticipate a couple of weeks early if you are going to have a low workload period coming up and let the others in your office know so they can shift work to you

[lawhopeful10]

If I were you, I'd make it clear to the managing partner in no uncertain terms that the dearth of billable work is unacceptable and demand more hours starting midnight December 31st (200 hours per month is decent, but over 250 is safer for midlaw). A measly 145 is clearly untenable and you would do well to consider your options. In the meantime, you should seriously consider dragging out your billable hours by quadruple-checking your Bluebook citations and/or capitalizations of defined terms.

if you are not going to be helpful, be funnier

[xxxman]

If I were you, I'd make it clear to the managing partner in no uncertain terms that the dearth of billable work is unacceptable and demand more hours starting midnight December 31st (200 hours per month is decent, but over 250 is safer for midlaw). A measly 145 is clearly untenable and you would do well to consider your options. In the meantime, you should seriously consider dragging out your billable hours by quadruple-checking your Bluebook citations and/or capitalizations of defined terms.

if you are not going to be helpful, be funnier

200 a month is only 50 a week
250 barely over 60 hours a week
THE GARBAGE MAN does those hours folks

[xxxman]

I work for a mid-sized firm in Nevada. I am supposed to be billing 167 per month, but average between 140 and 150. This is my first lawyer job and I've been with my firm for 6 months. I keep track of a couple other newer associates hours, and have beat or am beat by a couple of hours per month.

My biggest issue is that sometimes I do not have enough work to bill for in a day. I go through periods where I am swamped, and then there are periods where I am twiddling my thumbs thinking of what I can do to bill. This month in particular, I got really screwed by the holidays, and the mandatory pro-bono cases every attorney is required to handle.

I am really worried about being canned for my performance. No partner has commented on my hours.

Any advice?

IMHO resist the urge (and even peer pressure) to over inflate (times will come when it is easier said than done to resist this)
Better to lose a job than a license

[jrass]

I don't know what OP said that suggests they're tempted to inflate their hours, but it would be pretty dumb to think you could get away with overcharging by 300 hours. In response to the question, the first thing I'd think about is how your office assigns work. If it's free market then you have more control over how much work you get, and could change how you're going about soliciting work.

If it's through the assignment coordinator then it's luck of the draw. If you haven't gotten bad feedback and have good relationships with people you've worked with then they probably haven't had enough new work come in to keep everyone on pace this month. This is scary because if the firm isn't giving you guys enough work then some people are eventually going to get laid off. However, it's a mistake to assume that having lower hours as a first year (I'm assuming that's what you are) means you'll be the one laid off. Low hours are a kiss of death largely because there tends to be a correlation between poor work product and low hours. As a first year I'm sure everyone realizes that getting thrown onto a case in trial versus a short research assignment is 99% luck.

[20160810]

Virtually no one on here is going to have the nitty gritty on the Reno midlaw scene, but as a general matter first-year associates seldom make hours and it's almost never a problem.

Be available, ask for work, get everything done correctly (and promptly), and be enthusiastic. Try to go out to lunch with partners and senior associates a lot and generally get to know folks on a social level. This will get you on their radar when work needs doing. That's all you can do, and the odds are that by this time next year you'll have more work than you know what to do with.

[Anonymous User]

Advice: calm down.

Also, this is what sucks about the billable hour- thinking of time off for holidays as "getting screwed".

if you're open and available, just relax and enjoy the downtime. Seems like you are on par with your peers, so what is the worry? As long as you're not hiding from work (wait until you're a midlevel like me before doing that), you should be fine. don't stress yourself out about this, take the time to do CLEs/learn more about the firm and its practice areas and get to know people.

[NotMyRealName09]

Virtually no one on here is going to have the nitty gritty on the Reno midlaw scene, but as a general matter first-year associates seldom make hours and it's almost never a problem.

Be available, ask for work, get everything done correctly (and promptly), and be enthusiastic. Try to go out to lunch with partners and senior associates a lot and generally get to know folks on a social level. This will get you on their radar when work needs doing. That's all you can do, and the odds are that by this time next year you'll have more work than you know what to do with.

Yeah this. When I started as a new lawyer at a large-ish Midwest firm, I was super paranoid my entire first year due to lack of work / not hitting hours. I'd ask around, try not to be a pest, but if there was no work then there was nothing I could do but sit and wonder how they could be ok with paying me all this money to sit around doing nothing. But the dirty secret in law is THIS IS SUPER COMMON. It takes time for a case / file to evolve, for it to need a first year associate, for you to work your way into partners minds as someone available.

So your story is super familiar, not at all uncommon, and nothing to worry about. Honestly, the partners themselves know that this is how it works. The only exception is if everyone including partners are not busy. If that is the case, be worried.

[Anonymous User]

I didn't come anywhere close to hitting my hours "requirement" my first year. The firm didn't mind at all, and said I was doing a great job. They said that, by doing good work, more and more people will turn to you with billable work and that I would have no trouble hitting those requirements going forward. If you become a go-to associate and still have trouble hitting hours, then you need to figure out what the problem is, because its not the kind of issue that should continue on into the second year (barring workflow issues beyond your control).

[Johann]

just prepare to be no-bonused, but as a first year its fine.

[jrass]

I'll add the main piece of advice I got was not to complain or read into low hours as a first year despite the temptation. I would be more concerned if the more senior people aren't hitting their hours, because those people are worked like dogs and something would have to be up with the financials if they weren't getting work. The crazy thing about the whole organizational structure is you could have nothing to do for days, and then suddenly work around the clock for weeks.

Accidental anon.