Am I crazy? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Here is my situation and I need some perspective since I have never worked with a billing hour requirement. I am choosing between staying at my current job with a substantial pay raise but living in an area I really dislike or taking a job in an geographical area where I love and adding a billing hour requirement.

No student loan debt. I am a 2nd year attorney.

Job #1 (my current job)
Flyover country firm in rural area with about 10 attorneys (all but two of the attorneys are in the firm's big city office)
No billing hour requirement
$78,000 salary plus bonus (about 7-8k)
No real benefits and crappy insurance
I work about 40-45 hours a week, definitely not high stress.
This firm has is a good firm but definitely not a high dollar firm and I live an area I really don't like though I do like my job and the attorney I work with
I have no real friends or family in the area, but my SO does
I frequently am given jobs where I don't know what I'm doing and I have to figure it out - it is good for experience but I really want good training.

Job #2
Flyover country state but in a small city. 10 attorneys
$89,000 salary plus bonus for production (mainly for hours billed over 1800 a year)
Minimum billing is 147 per month but hour credits are given for 10 holidays and two weeks of vacation days so in effect billing hour requirement is something like ~1600 annually.
I have spoken with associates and have been assured that billing hour reductions almost never happen and you never get stuck doing things you can't bill for.
This firm is known as one of the elite firms of the area and probably exit options would be very good
All friends and family live in a near proximity
I will receive excellent training at this firm and will have a senior attorney with me on almost all my cases
Practice will be mainly civil litigation including commercial and real estate.

Am I crazy? I have never worked with a billable hour requirement and because of the way we do things, it is hard to measure what I actually bill at my current firm. I'm guessing if I billed aggressively at my current firm, I would be billing roughly 110 hours a month - so this will be a big jump in production. Any thoughts on this?

[deadpanic]

I went from more of a contingency practice to strictly hourly billing if you want to PM me for more details.

I think this is really more of a personal question like 1) how serious you and the SO are and where you want to be geographically, and 2) realistic chances at partners for each. Also, what is the bonus beyond 1800 hours at job 2? It seems like black box. Most smaller firms don't give out 7-8k bonuses like the one where you are so that is pretty good.

(Not including bonus here) ~10k/year is not a huge difference in net pay annually to jump ship. Now, practice area, geographic area, culture, etc. are reasons for jumping, but not pay here.

It sounds like you have it pretty good where you are. You should not be scared off by hourly billing in general, but I think it is likely you will work more hours at the new firm, though, especially at first to get the hang of billing and the entries. 1800 hours a year is not much, but kind of high for a firm only paying about 90k. That is only being paid about 20 bucks/hour and that is assuming 100% billing productivity, which is impossible (someone correct me if I am wrong with the math here).

[thisismytlsuername]

I went from more of a contingency practice to strictly hourly billing if you want to PM me for more details.

I think this is really more of a personal question like 1) how serious you and the SO are and where you want to be geographically, and 2) realistic chances at partners for each. Also, what is the bonus beyond 1800 hours at job 2? It seems like black box. Most smaller firms don't give out 7-8k bonuses like the one where you are so that is pretty good.

(Not including bonus here) ~10k/year is not a huge difference in net pay annually to jump ship. Now, practice area, geographic area, culture, etc. are reasons for jumping, but not pay here.

It sounds like you have it pretty good where you are. You should not be scared off by hourly billing in general, but I think it is likely you will work more hours at the new firm, though, especially at first to get the hang of billing and the entries. 1800 hours a year is not much, but kind of high for a firm only paying about 90k. That is only being paid about 20 bucks/hour and that is assuming 100% billing productivity, which is impossible (someone correct me if I am wrong with the math here).

Please show your work, because I'm very curious as to how you got to $20/hour.

[Anonymous User]

I went from more of a contingency practice to strictly hourly billing if you want to PM me for more details.

I think this is really more of a personal question like 1) how serious you and the SO are and where you want to be geographically, and 2) realistic chances at partners for each. Also, what is the bonus beyond 1800 hours at job 2? It seems like black box. Most smaller firms don't give out 7-8k bonuses like the one where you are so that is pretty good.

(Not including bonus here) ~10k/year is not a huge difference in net pay annually to jump ship. Now, practice area, geographic area, culture, etc. are reasons for jumping, but not pay here.

It sounds like you have it pretty good where you are. You should not be scared off by hourly billing in general, but I think it is likely you will work more hours at the new firm, though, especially at first to get the hang of billing and the entries. 1800 hours a year is not much, but kind of high for a firm only paying about 90k. That is only being paid about 20 bucks/hour and that is assuming 100% billing productivity, which is impossible (someone correct me if I am wrong with the math here).

Please show your work, because I'm very curious as to how you got to $20/hour.

They did 1800 / 90 = 20, instead of 90,000 dollars / 1800 hours = 50 dollars/hour.

[deadpanic]

I went from more of a contingency practice to strictly hourly billing if you want to PM me for more details.

I think this is really more of a personal question like 1) how serious you and the SO are and where you want to be geographically, and 2) realistic chances at partners for each. Also, what is the bonus beyond 1800 hours at job 2? It seems like black box. Most smaller firms don't give out 7-8k bonuses like the one where you are so that is pretty good.

(Not including bonus here) ~10k/year is not a huge difference in net pay annually to jump ship. Now, practice area, geographic area, culture, etc. are reasons for jumping, but not pay here.

It sounds like you have it pretty good where you are. You should not be scared off by hourly billing in general, but I think it is likely you will work more hours at the new firm, though, especially at first to get the hang of billing and the entries. 1800 hours a year is not much, but kind of high for a firm only paying about 90k. That is only being paid about 20 bucks/hour and that is assuming 100% billing productivity, which is impossible (someone correct me if I am wrong with the math here).

Please show your work, because I'm very curious as to how you got to $20/hour.

As I suspected and noted in my hasty post, that was not entirely correct. It is around $49 an hour. Obviously, it is still much lower than that considering the actual hours you will work. I still stand by the overall substance of my reply, but this part should be corrected.