What's the most pro bono hours I can bill before getting pushback? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Mid level lit associate at a free market firm that has no cap on pro bono hours counting towards billables. The pro bono matters I have been involved with have been by far the most rewarding, fun, and actually give me substantive experience. Assuming average total hours billed, what percentage of my billables can I dedicate to pro bono matters before I start getting on partners' nerves?

[jotarokujo]

Mid level lit associate at a free market firm that has no cap on pro bono hours counting towards billables. The pro bono matters I have been involved with have been by far the most rewarding, fun, and actually give me substantive experience. Assuming average total hours billed, what percentage of my billables can I dedicate to pro bono matters before I start getting on partners' nerves?

varies by firm but i'd think below 200 is pretty safe to consistently do at most firms. certainly if we're just talking one year that should be safe at basically any firm, during which you could find a more pro bono friendly firm

[Anonymous User]

During my first year at a free market firm with no cap on pro bono hours, I did an annualized ~340 pro bono with a total annualized hours of ~2000, so around 17%. No pushback whatsoever from the firm. So far this year I'm annualizing ~220 pro bono with a total annualized hours of ~2100, so around 10%, but hope to do more pro bono work once some of my paid matters slow down or end.

[Anonymous User]

Impossible to answer as a percentage of overall hours billed. If you are over 2000 in paid-client billables alone, then you can basically do all the pro bono you want at my shop. It's not really a percent thing.

If we're talking about what percentage of 2000 can be pro bono, then it still varies because people get leeway for trials more than for more run-of-the-mill tasks.

I've found at my free market, no cap firm that different partners view this differently. If I am annualizing 2200 with 300 of that as pro bono, some partners will see it as 2200 and some as 1900 when they're thinking about asking me to join a case team.

[Anonymous User]

At WilmerHale, some associates had 500+ hours of pro bono. The firm is very pro-pro bono, though. I think most associates had at least 100.

[Anonymous User]

At WilmerHale, some associates had 500+ hours of pro bono. The firm is very pro-pro bono, though. I think most associates had at least 100.

I know someone who had ~1k pro bono their first year at WH and ended up fine, but that was this associate's biggest case. I think the general consensus is don't worry about your PB hours, but also don't turn down billable work to focus on pro bono. If that associate had instead turned down a bunch of billable matters to take on a bunch of pro bono matters, they may have been told something different.

Obviously things might be different at other firms. WH isn't free market, so there's that too.

[Anonymous User]

I'm a mid-level at a free market/no cap V20. I did ~300/1950 last year and nobody said anything. The previous year I did ~400/2100 and it was mentioned very politely in my year-end review that I should "consider shifting more of my workload toward billable matters."