How to Coast in Biglaw Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm an expert on this. The key is to look kinda angry at all times like you're overworked (thanks Costanza) and stay under the radar. I billed between 1700 and 1900 for 4 years in M&A at a V10 firm and another year at a similar practice in a secondary market. Well regarded and in no danger of being asked to leave. Here's how I survive.

1. Showed up late.
2. Worked from home at night frequently.
3. Trusted my juniors once I was managing people.
4. Pushed back on unreasonable expectations.
5. Blew deadlines when I knew I could. On this one, if you know a client wants something by X date, make sure you hit timing so that it can get to the client by X date. But if you know it's a true bullshit false internal deadline, you can get away with sending an email like midnight the night before from your iphone while you're at a bar or relaxing watching tv saying you need a bit more time in the morning. People will bitch and moan but ignore it and forge ahead.
6. Said no to new deals.
7. Did perfect work. If you're going to be a low biller and a bit of a pain in the ass, you have to do work that makes it worth keeping you around. Luckily, you're getting 15+ hours more of sleep a night than your competition since you're aggressively saying no to work, so you can actually pull it off.

As we move into the new year and everyone has a new opportunity to coast, I just want to say this advice has been gold. I entered December with 1600 hours billed plus another 130 or so of non billable work. I am generally well-regarded and and staffed on deals with the rainmakers in my group. I almost never work weekends anymore. The key has been to always say you are super swamped whenever anyone asks how you are. I’ve had people apologize to me for asking me to do things because they “know I’m so busy.” I don’t ask for work, I say no to deals with the nightmare partners, and I aggressively delegate to my juniors (I have spent a ton of time training them and am generally nice so have been reaping the rewards). I also try to manage clients directly so the partners don’t have a chance to agree to insane deadlines.

I also make sure to take at least one long vacation (two weeks) so people forget I work there.

Committing to coasting more in 2022!

[Anonymous User]

Out of curiosity, are you coasters getting nobonused assuming you don't hit hours or are you firms lax with the requirement? Don't think I'm going to make bonus this year and it feels

[Anonymous User]

Out of curiosity, are you coasters getting nobonused assuming you don't hit hours or are you firms lax with the requirement? Don't think I'm going to make bonus this year and it feels

i coasted and got nobonused (my firm requires min hrs to get a bonus). partners i worked with said sorry and i acted disappointed but honestly i felt better about getting nobonused than i did billing 2000+ and getting whatever bonus the year before.

[Anonymous User]

Out of curiosity, are you coasters getting nobonused assuming you don't hit hours or are you firms lax with the requirement? Don't think I'm going to make bonus this year and it feels

My firm has a low requirement for meeting the bonus, so I've gotten it in my two coasting years. However, I'll admit it's a bit through gaming the system. I start checking how far I am off from the bonus about three months out. If it's an amount that isn't insane (so less than 200 hours a month) and it seems to be somewhat possible (so if I'm staffed on something that is busy, which seems to be going on for a while) I decide to go for it. I then do the work, but I go insanely slow on things and take on extra assignments below my paygrade. Like I did due diligence for about 50 hours one month, purely so I would hit the bonus. I figured it's better to get an extra couple 1$0k and put in extra hours for a couple months doing easy work halfheartedly, than not doing so and losing out on the cash.

That being said, if my requirement was far out of reach or I had to put in actual hard work, I wouldn't do so.

[Anonymous User]

Out of curiosity, are you coasters getting nobonused assuming you don't hit hours or are you firms lax with the requirement? Don't think I'm going to make bonus this year and it feels

My firm has a low requirement for meeting the bonus, so I've gotten it in my two coasting years. However, I'll admit it's a bit through gaming the system. I start checking how far I am off from the bonus about three months out. If it's an amount that isn't insane (so less than 200 hours a month) and it seems to be somewhat possible (so if I'm staffed on something that is busy, which seems to be going on for a while) I decide to go for it. I then do the work, but I go insanely slow on things and take on extra assignments below my paygrade. Like I did due diligence for about 50 hours one month, purely so I would hit the bonus. I figured it's better to get an extra couple 1$0k and put in extra hours for a couple months doing easy work halfheartedly, than not doing so and losing out on the cash.

That being said, if my requirement was far out of reach or I had to put in actual hard work, I wouldn't do so.

This is the move. I too start checking around September/October and see if it’s worth it. Anything over 180 a month is too much, though I’m in corporate and we all can count on December being a 200+ month. If I decide to go for it, I try to get staffed on discrete projects or easy projects for big clients. I also do more non billable work since it’s year end and there is just generally more to do.

[Anonymous User]

Out of curiosity, are you coasters getting nobonused assuming you don't hit hours or are you firms lax with the requirement? Don't think I'm going to make bonus this year and it feels

I'm currently planning to no-bonus myself for '22. I'm a BL jr @ a shop w/ a 2000 minimum billable requirement. If I end up getting one, great. But, if not, I personally couldn't care less. I do feel like the attitude around pushing yourself all the time is slowly changing just as a result of people like me deciding that there are other incentives beyond $$. I know I would rather have my time than the bonus and the real bonus anyway is not living in constant fear of having hours that are "too low." I know I won't make it long in this industry and think becoming a partner would actually be a death sentence for me. Just trying to buy up some land free and clear of liens in a low cost of living state, build a house, greenhouse, some solar panels, pay my loans below 200g & get off the grid altogether.

Recently came to the conclusion that market bonuses are not high enough at this time to incentivize substantially worsening my mental health over the upcoming year (I'm already not coping well mentally with winter 3 of 12 days to slow the spread). At the end of the day, when a second year-third year's bonus is not substantially higher than 1 month's pay after taxes and the billing would likely require more than 1 month's work on top of the day-to-day then it starts to seem like a loser's trade. I would 100% rather prolong my career in this market by lasting the next 2 years with reduced hours, and at this moment I just do not feel mentally well enough to keep relentlessly maximizing profit. I wish big law would offer a WFH track -- just make me a staff associate. I will never shoot to be partner, you don't have to move me up every year, and you can reduce my comp as long as my day ends at 5:30pm.

[Anonymous User]

How is this holding up in 2023?

[Anonymous User]

How is this holding up in 2023?

If you're in a cap markets group like me the last thing anybody is worried about is coasting