High hours pissing contest 2022 Forum

[Anonymous User]

On track for 2750. What about you?

[Anonymous User]

I'm actually planning on billing over 9000 hours this year.

[Anonymous User]

I'm actually planning on billing over 9000 hours this year.

Notwithstanding the mathematical impossibility, what kind of multiple will 9000 hours bring at your firm?

[Anonymous User]

2nd year on track for 3,000 but have vacation planned so will cut that down. Already not feeling like the job is worth it.

[Anonymous User]

First year on track for uhh 1600? That's with a week off though, and with the combination of Q1 and still being staffed up, I'll probably end the year closer to 2000ish.

[Anonymous User]

I'm actually planning on billing over 9000 hours this year.

Notwithstanding the mathematical impossibility, what kind of multiple will 9000 hours bring at your firm?

1. Termination
2. No Bonus
3. Bar referral
4. Rebates by the firm to all clients for billing fraud.
5. But hey, at Kirkland these days might get you up to 1.3x.

[almostperfectt]

I'm actually planning on billing over 9000 hours this year.

Notwithstanding the mathematical impossibility, what kind of multiple will 9000 hours bring at your firm?

1. Termination
2. No Bonus
3. Bar referral
4. Rebates by the firm to all clients for billing fraud.
5. But hey, at Kirkland these days might get you up to 1.3x.

6. Death. The best multiple of all.

[Anonymous User]

Let’s stop glorying high billables. Let’s focus more on creating boundaries and saying no. In this market, they can’t/won’t fire you.

[mwells_56]

I'm actually planning on billing over 9000 hours this year.

What?! Nine thousand!?

[Anonymous User]

[*]

I'm actually planning on billing over 9000 hours this year.

Lol at the chuckleheads ITT who don't get the joke

[BrowsingTLS]

[*]

I'm actually planning on billing over 9000 hours this year.

Lol at the chuckleheads ITT who don't get the joke

Even if you don't get the reference, on it's face it is obviously not serious. But the response about the 1.3 at Kirkland & Ellis was funny.

[Anonymous User]

Apparently there's 8760 hours in a year. I'm morbidly curious what's the most anyone has ever billed, anywhere? Seems 5000 hours (100/week; 14/day) is at least technically possible by some nutty workaholic who barely sleeps.

[Anonymous User]

Apparently there's 8760 hours in a year. I'm morbidly curious what's the most anyone has ever billed, anywhere? Seems 5000 hours (100/week; 14/day) is at least technically possible by some nutty workaholic who barely sleeps.

Gotta imagine there have been arrangements where a client paid for 100% of time on offsite work, and so effectively you had lawyers "billing" 24/7.

[Anonymous User]

Apparently there's 8760 hours in a year. I'm morbidly curious what's the most anyone has ever billed, anywhere? Seems 5000 hours (100/week; 14/day) is at least technically possible by some nutty workaholic who barely sleeps.

Gotta imagine there have been arrangements where a client paid for 100% of time on offsite work, and so effectively you had lawyers "billing" 24/7.

Oooh that's right, back when ppl traveled and billed for all the time away from home. Back when where was such a thing as home separated from work.

[Anonymous User]

Apparently there's 8760 hours in a year. I'm morbidly curious what's the most anyone has ever billed, anywhere? Seems 5000 hours (100/week; 14/day) is at least technically possible by some nutty workaholic who barely sleeps.

Doesn’t seem possible. Inefficiencies at work mean you’d be working at least 15 hours a day. That means there is one other hour in the day to do everything else if you get a full nights sleep (which you would need to work that much every day). Not to mention that work flow is lumpy, so you’d need very long stretches of billing 20+ a day. Needless to say I don’t believe anyone has billed 5k or really even close. Legitimate hours billed is likely somewhere in the 3s.

[Anonymous User]

Apparently there's 8760 hours in a year. I'm morbidly curious what's the most anyone has ever billed, anywhere? Seems 5000 hours (100/week; 14/day) is at least technically possible by some nutty workaholic who barely sleeps.

Gotta imagine there have been arrangements where a client paid for 100% of time on offsite work, and so effectively you had lawyers "billing" 24/7.

Oooh that's right, back when ppl traveled and billed for all the time away from home. Back when where was such a thing as home separated from work.

Sure, if you aren’t working all the hours you bill, then 8760 or even higher seems possible.

[Anonymous User]

Apparently there's 8760 hours in a year. I'm morbidly curious what's the most anyone has ever billed, anywhere? Seems 5000 hours (100/week; 14/day) is at least technically possible by some nutty workaholic who barely sleeps.

Doesn’t seem possible. Inefficiencies at work mean you’d be working at least 15 hours a day. That means there is one other hour in the day to do everything else if you get a full nights sleep (which you would need to work that much every day). Not to mention that work flow is lumpy, so you’d need very long stretches of billing 20+ a day. Needless to say I don’t believe anyone has billed 5k or really even close. Legitimate hours billed is likely somewhere in the 3s.

The premise was not getting a full night's sleep.

[Anonymous User]

I'm honestly shocked by these poll numbers. Maybe it is a selfselecting group, but I always thought it was pain and more pain with 2300 hours on average. It's the prime reason I haven't lateralled from my current firm 1,800 hours, as I figured I hit the absolute jackpot with my hours (want to lateral as I really don't like my practice area and dislike the city).

[stickershocked]

I'm honestly shocked by these poll numbers. Maybe it is a selfselecting group, but I always thought it was pain and more pain with 2300 hours on average. It's the prime reason I haven't lateralled from my current firm 1,800 hours, as I figured I hit the absolute jackpot with my hours (want to lateral as I really don't like my practice area and dislike the city).

You're not wrong.

[Wanderingdrock]

I'm honestly shocked by these poll numbers. Maybe it is a selfselecting group, but I always thought it was pain and more pain with 2300 hours on average. It's the prime reason I haven't lateralled from my current firm 1,800 hours, as I figured I hit the absolute jackpot with my hours (want to lateral as I really don't like my practice area and dislike the city).

You're not wrong.

Definitely self-selecting to the extent that the folks billing 2800 aren't likely to be posting here as much as folks annualizing 1800. But it may also be some foresight bias, if that's a thing? Like, I'm annualizing around 2300-2400 right now, but I haven't taken a vacation yet this year, been working harder than usual on weekends and holidays, etc. I don't expect that to continue all year and I do intend to take a couple of vacations, in addition to relaxing a bit once I hit my hours target. So will I end up at 2300? Yeah, maybe, if things keep going as hard as they've been, but I don't think they will. Let's chat in 8 months!

[Anonymous User]

350

[Anonymous User]

Apparently there's 8760 hours in a year. I'm morbidly curious what's the most anyone has ever billed, anywhere? Seems 5000 hours (100/week; 14/day) is at least technically possible by some nutty workaholic who barely sleeps.

Doesn’t seem possible. Inefficiencies at work mean you’d be working at least 15 hours a day. That means there is one other hour in the day to do everything else if you get a full nights sleep (which you would need to work that much every day). Not to mention that work flow is lumpy, so you’d need very long stretches of billing 20+ a day. Needless to say I don’t believe anyone has billed 5k or really even close. Legitimate hours billed is likely somewhere in the 3s.

god I would love to work at a firm where it literally does not even occur to some associates that people work a 15 hour day on less than 7 hours of sleep

[Anonymous User]

Apparently there's 8760 hours in a year. I'm morbidly curious what's the most anyone has ever billed, anywhere? Seems 5000 hours (100/week; 14/day) is at least technically possible by some nutty workaholic who barely sleeps.

Doesn’t seem possible. Inefficiencies at work mean you’d be working at least 15 hours a day. That means there is one other hour in the day to do everything else if you get a full nights sleep (which you would need to work that much every day). Not to mention that work flow is lumpy, so you’d need very long stretches of billing 20+ a day. Needless to say I don’t believe anyone has billed 5k or really even close. Legitimate hours billed is likely somewhere in the 3s.

god I would love to work at a firm where it literally does not even occur to some associates that people work a 15 hour day on less than 7 hours of sleep

Right? Especially with WFH it's not unheard-of for associates to have to pull multiple 15s in a row. Not pleasant, but I've been there multiple times.

Anyway, there's this partner at my firm who routinely bills 3.5-4k hours a year, and I wouldn't be surprised if he hit 5k in a particularly busy year. I hear he has hit >450 in a single month, which is >5k annualized. He hardly sleeps and responds to emails at all hours of the night. And he actually has two firm-issued laptops so he doesn't have to stop working if one of them craps out (this probably outs him for anybody reading). And that partner does lit, so multiple trials in a year easily gives him multiple stretches of 20+ hour days. Not to say that any normal human can do this, but some can and love it.

[Anonymous User]

Apparently there's 8760 hours in a year. I'm morbidly curious what's the most anyone has ever billed, anywhere? Seems 5000 hours (100/week; 14/day) is at least technically possible by some nutty workaholic who barely sleeps.

Doesn’t seem possible. Inefficiencies at work mean you’d be working at least 15 hours a day. That means there is one other hour in the day to do everything else if you get a full nights sleep (which you would need to work that much every day). Not to mention that work flow is lumpy, so you’d need very long stretches of billing 20+ a day. Needless to say I don’t believe anyone has billed 5k or really even close. Legitimate hours billed is likely somewhere in the 3s.

god I would love to work at a firm where it literally does not even occur to some associates that people work a 15 hour day on less than 7 hours of sleep

ok then do it

[Sackboy]

2nd year on track for 3,000 but have vacation planned so will cut that down. Already not feeling like the job is worth it.

Because you're working at least 50% more than you should be. The job is fine when you're working 1,800-2,000 hours and generally worth the money. It's not worth double the money at 3k hours.