Getting creative when work is slow Forum

[Anonymous User]

New BigLaw associate here. I'm a couple months in and have had a few small billable projects, but it has been pretty slow (I understand this is normal, especially right now). I still occasionally email partners checking in for work, although a couple have already indicated that "they know."

We are supposed to account for a certain amount of nonbillable time each day if billing isn't up to par, but I'm starting to run out of ways to get creative with that. I'm worried that when my review comes up they will be like "wow, did you really account for 100 hours of legal reading in October?" Maybe they won't care. I watch PLI videos and read on PLI Plus, do remote firm trainings and webinars, read through documents my group produces, do some pro bono when I can, etc. But sometimes it's still hard to know whether that's enough.

[ghostoftraynor]

This doesn't matter at all. Nobody reads or cares what you put for non-billable time.

[papermateflair]

What do the partners you work for want you to do with your time? Some may tell you to relax and enjoy it, because work will pick up soon, but I know in my practice group they would want me to be writing legal alerts or articles. As long as you're doing the nonbillable projects that partners want you involved in, and you've communicated your workload (or lack thereof), then they aren't going to be on your back about whether you did 3.5 hours of PLI vs. 4.8 hours of PLI - or even ever look at where you spent your nonbillable time specifically.

[hdr]

This doesn't matter at all. Nobody reads or cares what you put for non-billable time.

+1. Partners only look at your billable hours (entered, billed, and collected).

[tyrant_flycatcher]

I generally agree with what has been posted in response to OP. But at my annual reviews with my “development” partner, they are given a report that shows how much I billed to BD and pro bono too, and they comment on that. If you’re hitting your hours, I don’t think anyone cares that you’re not doing pro bono (maybe unfortunately). If you’re not hitting your hours, I think some people may expect that you have something to show for it.

[strawberrieee]

At my firm, if you record less than a certain number of hours (billable and non-billable) in any workday, it will be counted as a vacation day, so people do record non-billable time. No one cares what you put in there though.

[Best]

My firm generally does not care about non-billable time, but they do care about business development time. It's a second metric, and you're absolutely expected to have a certain amount of hours if you want to make partner and you're not otherwise crushing it with billables.

[Anonymous User]

Reach out to your firm's pro bono committee and see if you can take something on. Beyond that, you're doing everything you can to get work and use your time productively. The work will come, enjoy the downtime.

[Anonymous User]

At my firm, everyone just bills "professional reading" to mean "did nothing." Like -- can be out of office taking a 4 hour lunch, and you just bill it as "professional reading." Totally kosher -- partners quip about it knowingly all the time.

[beepboopbeep]

Do online CLEs (with or without something to do in the background) depending how onerous your jx's continuing education requirements are. Your firm probably has a subscription to something like Westlaw legal education.

[Pneumonia]

Start a law review article or a CLE article. If nothing else, it will focus your reading.

[Anonymous User]

This doesn't matter at all. Nobody reads or cares what you put for non-billable time.

Partners see everything, so if you put that you went out to lunch with a summer associate, or attended a summer associate event, or spent 6 hours reading the Wall St. Journal, they will see.

And when they want to get rid of you, they'll use it against you.

[ghostoftraynor]

What matters is your billable hours. If you are hitting billables, nobody cares (or will look) at what you billed for non-billable time.

That can't be reasonably disputed, but digging deeper your hypo makes no sense. Yes, things like helping with recruiting (or business development) are better than reading reddit in your spare time. But, that isn't the question. OP can't go on summer lunches right now. And, even if OP could, its not like they can spend a whole day doing that. The question is whether saying something like 7 hours of professional reading is meaningfully different than saying you watched 7 hours of firm training materials (it isn't).

[hdr]

This doesn't matter at all. Nobody reads or cares what you put for non-billable time.

Partners see everything, so if you put that you went out to lunch with a summer associate, or attended a summer associate event, or spent 6 hours reading the Wall St. Journal, they will see.

And when they want to get rid of you, they'll use it against you.

No partner takes the time to review associates' non-billable time entries. There's little point to billing to BD vs. admin/reading/lunch/whatever. The only exception is if you turn down work; partners might start scrutinizing your entries if you claim to be too busy to take on more, in my experience.

When it's time for an associate to be pushed out, the only metric that really matters is billables. If you're in a gray area like 1600-1800 hours, having BD output (articles, speaking engagements, etc.) might be the difference-maker, but it's still not going to matter how many hours you bill to BD.

[papermateflair]

This doesn't matter at all. Nobody reads or cares what you put for non-billable time.

Partners see everything, so if you put that you went out to lunch with a summer associate, or attended a summer associate event, or spent 6 hours reading the Wall St. Journal, they will see.

And when they want to get rid of you, they'll use it against you.

No partner takes the time to review associates' non-billable time entries. There's little point to billing to BD vs. admin/reading/lunch/whatever. The only exception is if you turn down work; partners might start scrutinizing your entries if you claim to be too busy to take on more, in my experience.

When it's time for an associate to be pushed out, the only metric that really matters is billables. If you're in a gray area like 1600-1800 hours, having BD output (articles, speaking engagements, etc.) might be the difference-maker, but it's still not going to matter how many hours you bill to BD.

I would add that some firms do care about hitting whatever the overall hours expectation is. For example, some firms would say the expectation is 1900 hours and 2200 hours total. If your firm has that expectation, you need to make sure you're hitting that hours total. If you aren't sure, ask a more senior associate. I know at my firm that they actually look at our overall totals and will use it against you if you don't hit it (no one cares HOW you get to 2200 hours, just that you do). Someone at your firm should be able to tell you what the expectation is.

[Lestersandy]

Flol. This stuff people worry about on TLS is absurd.

You don’t have work? Enjoy it! You told a partner so you’re in the clear. As for your time I can assure you no one cares. And if they do it won’t matter anyway.

[Definitely Not North]

yeah -- enjoy it. the free time goes away within 3 months as you get ramped up then it doesn't come back ever again unless you lateral and have to ramp up again.

but i have told this to a few years worth of first years and they never listen, and then later when they're up at 4 am doing some horrible deal with me with no end in sight i like to drop an i told u so

[Lestersandy]

yeah -- enjoy it. the free time goes away within 3 months as you get ramped up then it doesn't come back ever again unless you lateral and have to ramp up again.

but i have told this to a few years worth of first years and they never listen, and then later when they're up at 4 am doing some horrible deal with me with no end in sight i like to drop an i told u so

I feel bad for them but there is something delicious about them being up with me and just giving them a “this is what you wanted”

[Definitely Not North]

OP have you considered playing some video games