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Someone I know is currently a fifth year at a market-paying firm in a major city that is expensive to live in (NY/SF/Boston/DC). The firm has a minimum billable of 2000 for a bonus and it isn’t market bonus until 2200 or so.

Just got an offer from a firm with a 1750 billable requirement (and allegedly not many people exceed this by much). Bonus is a lot lower (senior level is apparently around $60,000). They were offered a position paying around $230,000-$240,000 for a sixth year position (market is $305,000).

Is the pay difference too large to justify leaving, especially in an expensive city? I believe the firm they are looking to move to isn’t an up or out firm and people who make of counsel (which is pretty likely) are around $400,000.

I personally think the possibility of a work life balance justifies a move, but I was curious what other people thought.

Anonymous User wrote:Someone I know is currently a fifth year at a market-paying firm in a major city that is expensive to live in (NY/SF/Boston/DC). The firm has a minimum billable of 2000 for a bonus and it isn’t market bonus until 2200 or so.

Just got an offer from a firm with a 1750 billable requirement (and allegedly not many people exceed this by much). Bonus is a lot lower (senior level is apparently around $60,000). They were offered a position paying around $230,000-$240,000 for a sixth year position (market is $305,000).

Is the pay difference too large to justify leaving, especially in an expensive city? I believe the firm they are looking to move to isn’t an up or out firm and people who make of counsel (which is pretty likely) are around $400,000.

I personally think the possibility of a work life balance justifies a move, but I was curious what other people thought.

Depends on whether the person plans to stay in this expensive city for long or would prefer to leave. If there's no leaving this city then I'd choose the work/life balance option with long term potential.

Anonymous User wrote:Just got an offer from a firm with a 1750 billable requirement (and allegedly not many people exceed this by much).

My concern would be whether there's enough work to go around - and what happens to folks who fail to hit 1750 (due to not enough work to go around). Can be far more stressful to scrounge for billable hours than to just churn through more billables.

QContinuum wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Just got an offer from a firm with a 1750 billable requirement (and allegedly not many people exceed this by much).

My concern would be whether there's enough work to go around - and what happens to folks who fail to hit 1750 (due to not enough work to go around). Can be far more stressful to scrounge for billable hours than to just churn through more billables.

That’s true. The firm has had revenue decreases in the past couple of years (not consecutive, but up and down). So maybe that is an issue.