Are there any "lifestyle" biglaw firms? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Do any exist? I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but just wondering if there's anything out there for M&A that pays Cravath (Milbank) scale. I don't even care if I don't hit my bonus in any given year, just wondering if there's a better place where you can bill 1800-2100 (ideally more toward 1800-1900). Currently a midlevel at a shop where pretty much every associate in our group that cares even minimally about their job is at 2200-2800, and this year with COVID I'm guessing it's probably more like 2400-2800.

I feel like they say M&A is feast or famine, but it seems like it's only been feast for as long as I can remember (consistently 200+ months, occasionally 300+, and rarely, if ever, less than 150), so ideally looking for a place that occasionally has the famine side of it too. Deciding if lateraling is worth it, since in-house jobs seem hard to come by.

[LawrenceGazebo]

Do any exist? I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but just wondering if there's anything out there for M&A that pays Cravath (Milbank) scale. I don't even care if I don't hit my bonus in any given year, just wondering if there's a better place where you can bill 1800-2100 (ideally more toward 1800-1900). Currently a midlevel at a shop where pretty much every associate in our group that cares even minimally about their job is at 2200-2800, and this year with COVID I'm guessing it's probably more like 2400-2800.

I feel like they say M&A is feast or famine, but it seems like it's only been feast for as long as I can remember (consistently 200+ months, occasionally 300+, and rarely, if ever, less than 150), so ideally looking for a place that occasionally has the famine side of it too. Deciding if lateraling is worth it, since in-house jobs seem hard to come by.

I've never heard of a lifestyle, full-market-paying biglaw M&A role.

[Anonymous User]

There's no such thing as a lifestyle firm, but some partners/groups are chill to work for. My prior firm, for instance, had a 1950 hour requirement with 200 credit for pro bono. For three straight years I billed roughly 1800 + 150 with only minimal nonbillables and I got a market bonus every year. But other groups were known for being extremely demanding.

Unless you're gunning for something, I don't think it makes sense to stay at a firm where 2400 hours is the norm.

[Anonymous User]

There's no such thing as a lifestyle firm, but some partners/groups are chill to work for. My prior firm, for instance, had a 1950 hour requirement with 200 credit for pro bono. For three straight years I billed roughly 1800 + 150 with only minimal nonbillables and I got a market bonus every year. But other groups were known for being extremely demanding.

Unless you're gunning for something, I don't think it makes sense to stay at a firm where 2400 hours is the norm.

Yeah, by "lifestyle" this is what I had in mind (although, this sounds even better than what I had in mind). I have to imagine there are less busy M&A groups that the ~v5-15 firm I'm at. I think I could handle the crazy times more sustainably if there were some slow times to offset those (or time when I could be doing pro bono, etc.).

[Anonymous User]

A significant amount of firms average billables are around 1850. Full-time M&A associates are probably on the higher end of that.

I think most firms with a billable hour requirement will let you hit the target (1950/2000) without any further expectations. 2500 average is very high and sounds like your firm needs to hire more people.

[The Lsat Airbender]

V10-ish M&A is your problem, OP. You're in basically the worst corner of biglaw for work-life balance. The silver lining is that when you do leave you'll have better options on average.

[Anonymous User]

I think this is really more practice-dependent. I’m in private funds and I would say it’s about as close to lifestyle as you can get without being in T&E or something. Other than a handful of true gunners in my group and some poor souls on the busiest clients, most people bill around 1850-1950 and then 50-150 of marketing/admin work. Deadlines are known farther out and deal teams are small so there’s not a lot of fake deadlines being set by seniors (direct client contact means you can manage your own schedule) and I mostly don’t work weekends.

All that’s to say if you are junior enough you can probably retool. M&A has some overlap with funds through PE work or manager M&A so maybe you can do some networking that way.