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And, if so, what might a $75k midlaw regional firm be expecting from associates?

I have an opportunity and I have exhausted all of the usual avenues -- reach out to associates that went to my school, ask questions at the interviews, etc. I know that each firm is different, but is there any correlation whatsoever between salary and quality of life (other than mo money mo problems?).

Thanks so much and I apologize in advance for what I know is a request for speculation.

no

Yes.

If salary > 0 then workload is likely to be significant. Hth.

Anonymous User wrote:And, if so, what might a $75k midlaw regional firm be expecting from associates?

I have an opportunity and I have exhausted all of the usual avenues -- reach out to associates that went to my school, ask questions at the interviews, etc. I know that each firm is different, but is there any correlation whatsoever between salary and quality of life (other than mo money mo problems?).

Thanks so much and I apologize in advance for what I know is a request for speculation.

It is pretty difficult to determine that just based off salary. Such thing would be firm/job specific. For example, my salary is higher than $75k and my workload is pretty manageable and frankly, enjoyable. A friend is an assistant public defender and he makes less than $75k and his work load is a lot larger than mine. Further, my big law colleagues makes over $150k and all they do is work.

Firm/work area specific. Maybe you should inquire at the firm.

If offered a job they should detail the billable hour requirements in the employment offer letter. If not, just ask. That will give you a ballpark idea of the amount of work you will be expected to put in.

Devlin wrote:If offered a job they should detail the billable hour requirements in the employment offer letter. If not, just ask. That will give you a ballpark idea of the amount of work you will be expected to put in.

Thanks everyone, much appreciated -- I know it is a relatively stupid question.

The "ballpark" I was given was along the lines of "we like to set our goals at 1950 hours."

Anonymous User wrote:

Devlin wrote:If offered a job they should detail the billable hour requirements in the employment offer letter. If not, just ask. That will give you a ballpark idea of the amount of work you will be expected to put in.

Thanks everyone, much appreciated -- I know it is a relatively stupid question.

The "ballpark" I was given was along the lines of "we like to set our goals at 1950 hours."

That is my billable goal as well. I thought it would be pretty easy. But there are other things to consider that I did not at first. What type of clients does this firm have, and what is your hourly rate. My hourly rate is high for my market, and a lot of the clients that I do work for are insurance companies. What that means is that I have to task bill everything that I do and the partners do not want to see administrative tasks or internal communications on the bill. This results in a lot of hours lost.

On the other hand I have friends at more midlaw firms who have 2k hour requirements. They work less because their rates are lower, clients bitch less about their bills, and they can block bill their time making it easier to capture more of the time spent at work.

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

Devlin wrote:If offered a job they should detail the billable hour requirements in the employment offer letter. If not, just ask. That will give you a ballpark idea of the amount of work you will be expected to put in.

Thanks everyone, much appreciated -- I know it is a relatively stupid question.

The "ballpark" I was given was along the lines of "we like to set our goals at 1950 hours."

That is my billable goal as well. I thought it would be pretty easy. But there are other things to consider that I did not at first. What type of clients does this firm have, and what is your hourly rate. My hourly rate is high for my market, and a lot of the clients that I do work for are insurance companies. What that means is that I have to task bill everything that I do and the partners do not want to see administrative tasks or internal communications on the bill. This results in a lot of hours lost.

On the other hand I have friends at more midlaw firms who have 2k hour requirements. They work less because their rates are lower, clients bitch less about their bills, and they can block bill their time making it easier to capture more of the time spent at work.

This. Not all billable hour requirements at a given number are created equal. Working litigation for megafirm with unlimited doc review on one megacase means 2,000 billable hours is not much more than 2000 hours of work. 2,000 hours working on dozens of small time matters where every client fights every bill and you are expected to help with business generation with no support staff likely means 1,000+ hours of nonbillable work on top of the billable requirement. Also, some firms have a hard 2,000 chargeable hours requirement, while others give certain practice areas a break, or count lots of pro bono or business development time towards the requirement.

Bottom line is that a firm with a 2,000 billable hour requirement could be a 50 hour a week job or it could be an 80 hour a week job. You don't know without all the details.

Thanks for the info. How does transactional 1950 hours fit in, again obviously in a super generalized sense?

Anonymous User wrote:Thanks for the info. How does transactional 1950 hours fit in, again obviously in a super generalized sense?

It's a lot of hours in midlaw no matter how you slice it, with one exception, and that is if your firm has < 5-10 big clients who comprise the vast majority of the work. In that case, however, you should have other concerns.

I'm just saying that I wouldn't plan on having your weekends free.

smallfirmassociate wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Thanks for the info. How does transactional 1950 hours fit in, again obviously in a super generalized sense?

It's a lot of hours in midlaw no matter how you slice it, with one exception, and that is if your firm has < 5-10 big clients who comprise the vast majority of the work. In that case, however, you should have other concerns.

I'm just saying that I wouldn't plan on having your weekends free.

Good info, thank you.