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In looking for a balance between hours and overall prestige (like most people do), which rating/ranking do you find most trustworthy? I find them commonly inconsistent. Also, is there any reliable information on actual billable hours? I've looked at Above-the-law ratings and the numbers just seems to be off (like 1950/1950 has a worse rating than 2000/2100, etc.) Thanks you all for your inputs. BTW, I am most interested in IP boutiques and GP with strong IP, in the Chicago market.

Trying to find reliable information on boutiques generally, or a practice area, is a battle you're likely going to lose. NALP may have it for the big firms, but IP firms operate differently than other firms. You don't just need to know if there's a billable requirement, you need to know if there's a billed requirement (and that makes a huge difference). You need to know what your billing rate will be and what your firm charges for office actions and applications. Without this information you'll never be able to know your hours, only a vague ballpark.

I second the part about needing to know what your billing rate will be/what your firm charges for work. 1600 doesn't mean much if they're going to bill you at 550 and still charge $3k per office action response (including partner review), and if they're going to yell at you if the actual bill comes out to $4k. Assuming by IP boutique you want to go into pros, at least.

In general it's going to be hard to find rankings on boutiques. You'll probably have to rely on firsthand knowledge of people who work/have worked at a lot of the firms, boutique or not, to get a real sense of the true hours requirement/expectation.

Any comments on MBHB, Brinks and Marshall, Gerstein & Borun LLP???