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Expect to be fired at the end of this month due to low billable hours for the last three months. Not at all my fault.

Specialty lit firm, base salary $160 plus bonuses. What is a standard severance package and what leverage do I have?

Anonymous User wrote:Expect to be fired at the end of this month due to low billable hours for the last three months. Not at all my fault.

Specialty lit firm, base salary $160 plus bonuses. What is a standard severance package and what leverage do I have?

Firing someone for three months of low billables would be very, very unusual. What makes you think you are going to be fired?

How low were your hours?

Dec 110, Jan 105, Feb estimating 60-70. Been sitting at my desk with literally no work most of this month.

It's a boutique firm and my managing partner has no qualms about firing people. There's no sense of investment in his people. Our support staff has been in constant flux since I started here. Last evidence is he has been acting awkward around me this week. Other attorneys are acting weird as well, avoiding eye contact, etc. it's a very gossipy firm, if boss was out to fire someone he couldn't keep it to himself.

Anonymous User wrote:Dec 110, Jan 105, Feb estimating 60-70. Been sitting at my desk with literally no work most of this month.

It's a boutique firm and my managing partner has no qualms about firing people. There's no sense of investment in his people. Our support staff has been in constant flux since I started here. Last evidence is he has been acting awkward around me this week. Other attorneys are acting weird as well, avoiding eye contact, etc. it's a very gossipy firm, if boss was out to fire someone he couldn't keep it to himself.

110 hours in December is totally normal. So you're basically talking about two slow months. If you are going to get fired, it has little or nothing to do with your hours.

By the way, you're probably just being paranoid.

Keep us posted.

Even if you don't get fired, if you keep having slow months eventually you should start looking for something else because you aren't getting the experience you need to be getting. That hurts you both internally and in your next job because people will see that you have X years of experience and expect that your skills are commensurate with that. ..totally not your fault but you want to avoid this. If I were you I would start looking now since it protects you if you are actually fired and it protects you from what I'm describing. If you want relatively more job security, go to big law for a few years. Yes people occasionally get fired but not for billing 110 hours in Dec.

I hadn't really considered this whole thing about low hours eventually making people perceive you as less skilled than they would expect (although it makes sense) until a partner mentioned to me that whole classes become lost when there are low hours for a prolonged period of time. So I would at least start looking regardless of whether you get fired (and btw I don't think three 100-hour months is going to harm you but don't let it become years of low hour months).

What are the reasons you are having consistently low hours? Is it because the entire firm is slow (i.e. all other associates have low hours) or is it because partners/seniors aren't giving you any work?

If the entire firm is slow, does the boss plan on firing everyone?