Pro bono hours at firms with no cap? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I will be joining a BL firm with an hours target/requirement but no pro bono hours cap. I would appreciate hearing any experiences/perspectives from people at those kinds of firms (especially ones that really do value pro bono, which mine does). I am especially interested in hearing from non-transactional attorneys.

Did you ever take on pro bono in part because you would not hit your hours requirement otherwise? How many? I hear of people billing 300+ hours because their groups are slow, but has that gotten you/others pushback? Does approach among associates differ based on partnership prospects?

This question was in part prompted by some firms tying bonuses to adjusted hours and stuff.

[Anonymous User]

I will be joining a BL firm with an hours cap but no pro bono hours cap. I would appreciate hearing any experiences/perspectives from people at those kinds of firms (especially ones that really do value pro bono, which mine does). I am especially interested in hearing from non-transactional attorneys.

Did you ever take on pro bono in part because you would not hit your hours requirement otherwise? How many? I hear of people billing 300+ hours because their groups are slow, but has that gotten you/others pushback? Does approach among associates differ based on partnership prospects?

This question was in part prompted by some firms tying bonuses to adjusted hours and stuff.

My last firm and current one both had hours minimums but unlimited pro bono. My first one really wanted people to stay under like 150 hours. I billed 200 pro bono last year, and a partner told me that there was “enough” billable work to go around that I should have focused on that. My billables were for one matter and I had no choice, but I didn’t appreciate the talk from the partner.

I know associates at my current firm who regularly bill 200-300 hours with no negative feedback. They said that they try to pick up matters around June/July when it looks like they may come up short.

[Anonymous User]

V10 with no target and "unlimited" pro bono, it just tends to work out across the group and over the year. Definitely used more when people are quiet, but that is intentional. No push back from partners.

Edit: have definitely heard of 200+.

[Anonymous User]

I was at a V20 until recently with no pro bono cap.

Zero pushback that I ever heard of. I knew a guy who billed over 1,000 hours one year for a civil rights pro bono case. I billed 260 to pro bono one year and still came up 10 hours short of the firm's formal billable hour requirement, and nobody cared.

[Anonymous User]

Once billed 550 or so pro bono hours at my V50 and got a full bonus. 550 plus my commercial hours was just a hair over the threshold.

The matter was a big civil rights case in federal court and the firm committed a lot of resources to it. During my review, it was noted but my reviewing partner was running the case where I ran up all the pro bono hours and understood why they were high, so it wasn't a big deal. Got to take a bunch of depositions too, as a 4th or 5th year.

My firm was very pro bono friendly though, so you're not getting away with this everywhere.

[Anonymous User]

I'm at a no-cap pro bono shop and some people take the work seriously, while others take the potential for debauched padding seriously.

I think as a first year I billed around 250. No one cared. I think they appreciated the hustle, actually, given typically low first year hours.

[Anonymous User]

Billed 370 hours of pro bono as a first year at a firm with an hours requirement. Full bonus, zero pushback. I definitely wasn't an outlier case; associates will bill 500+ hours on really big pro bono matters.

[Anonymous User]

I've always taken it for granted that firms and the individuals who run them have genuinely no interest at all in helping people, contributing to society, or making the world a better place, and as a consequence pro bono hours must generate some sort of tax write off or otherwise contribute to the firm's bottom line. Can't confirm it, but I just don't believe firm would participate in more than purely token pro bono activity unless it helped profitability.

My firm has no cap on pro bono hours and I have billed up to 200 hours a year with no pushback at all.

[Anonymous User]

I've always taken it for granted that firms and the individuals who run them have genuinely no interest at all in helping people, contributing to society, or making the world a better place, and as a consequence pro bono hours must generate some sort of tax write off or otherwise contribute to the firm's bottom line. Can't confirm it, but I just don't believe firm would participate in more than purely token pro bono activity unless it helped profitability.

My firm has no cap on pro bono hours and I have billed up to 200 hours a year with no pushback at all.

I genuinely believe that at least some of the high-level partners at my firm sincerely believe in our pro bono work. Even assuming that the decision-makers are soulless automatons with no interest in improving the world, though, I can think of a couple other ways pro bono makes sense: it generates good publicity (thereby improving prestige and perhaps attracting clients), it makes the firm more attractive to new recruits, it improves morale and therefore retention for existing associates, it's low-cost training (especially if associates are doing it on top of a decent load of billable work).

[Anonymous User]

You should talk to other associates at your firm to find out how things really work. In general, higher-ranked firms will let you bill whatever you want to pro bono (within reason, maybe 200-300 hours unless you're working on a high-profile pro bono matter), and lower-ranked firms will find all sorts of reasons to deny you a bonus.

[Pneumonia]

You should talk to other associates at your firm to find out how things really work. In general, higher-ranked firms will let you bill whatever you want to pro bono (within reason, maybe 200-300 hours unless you're working on a high-profile pro bono matter), and lower-ranked firms will find all sorts of reasons to deny you a bonus.

This is correct: ask the other associates at your firm.

A few more things. First, as a general rule, you shouldn't be turning down billable work due to pro bono work. The exception is if you have a pro bono hearing or something that puts you out of commission on a certain day. But in general you shouldn't be turning down new billable cases or matters. Second, if your billables are otherwise slow (especially if you are in lit), then you should actively be pursuing as much pro bono as you can get. Pro bono is training, so take it seriously. Partners will be more understanding about high hours if you can develop skills (depos, hearings, etc.), get good outcomes (settlements, attorney's fees, etc.), or both. If you spend 200 hours on an eviction case and lose it, that kind of looks like you were padding.

In other words, be reasonable about it. Don't rush out and take 4 huge pro bono matters and get yourself underwater such that you can't do any billable work. Better to have one big matter. Finding the right one can be tough, so be selective. But once your firm represents a client, they will want you to do the best job possible. Matters that give you a chance to develop important skills or deliver measurable results for the client will always be best. Those matters also tend to require more time.

If you spend 400 hours within these confines, you'll be just fine at most firms. You need to leave space for billable work, but if there is none to be had, then no one will fault you for not filling the rest of your time with pro bono. Better than filling it with CLEs or whatever.

[Anonymous User]

I'm at a V10 with no cap. Associates regularly get a light talking to in year-end reviews if they exceed ~15-20% of their hours being pro bono. I've gotten "the talk" a couple of times, but it has never affected my bonus, so frankly, I don't care.