Average billable hours are lower than the firm’s minimum hours requirement? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Is it normal for a firm’s average number of billable hours per associate to be higher than its minimum billable hours requirement?

Looking at a firm with a 1950 minimum billable hours requirement, but their average billable hours over the last two years were 1700-1800. Does this mean that at least half of the attorneys are in bad standing, or is the “requirement” not really a requirement?

[The Lsat Airbender]

Mean != median, so hard to say how many individuals are above/below the cutoff, but yeah presumably they have a lot of associates who get noboneused

[beepboopbeep]

Is it normal for a firm’s average number of billable hours per associate to be higher than its minimum billable hours requirement?

Looking at a firm with a 1950 minimum billable hours requirement, but their average billable hours over the last two years were 1700-1800. Does this mean that at least half of the attorneys are in bad standing, or is the “requirement” not really a requirement?

If you're able, check whether that average includes (a) pro bono hours, business development hours, or any other not-technically-billable hours that nevertheless can go into bonus eligibility depending on the firm, and (b) stub years, people who leave mid-year, and people who take leave. At my prior firm, our average was also well below our billable target, but the lived experience of every associate was that of billing well above the minimum. I always figured it was because the average was counting people who peaced out in January with 500 hours Oct-Dec, or took two months' parental leave, etc.

Also, are you sure it's only average partner-track associate hours, and not all attorneys? For whatever reason, lots of partners actually don't bill all that much even if they're working a lot, and of course if it counts staff attorneys or other categories of "people employed by a law firm other than ordinary associates" that can drag the average down, too.

[Pneumonia]

As mentioned, mean and median are different. You can’t assume that people “over” the billable minimum are over it to the same extent that attorneys who are under are under. So you might have four folks who bill 2025 on the year, and one person who bills 1400. Average will be 1900, of course. But 80% of associates exceeded the minimum. And if you think about it, this distribution makes sense. No real reason to keep going if you’re already over 2,000 and can slow down. And no real reason to strive when you know the bonus target is out of reach.