The BigLaw hate buffet Forum

[iliketurtles123]

A search of TLS shows that you can still bill a low amount of hours and get away with it for a couple years.

Why not work hard for a year or two (depending on your loans) to pay down most of your loans, then bill 2200 or whatever and just make your life easier until you're either shown the door 2-4 years later (which means you already made it 4-6 years) or you find a new job?

You think you can casually bill 2200 hours?

?
Maybe I'm wrong but based on what I've heard from associates and based on threads here, it seems like minimum billables will keep you on for few years.

Edit: Oh i see what you're saying.
I'm saying it makes it much easier, not easy. Going from 2400 to 2200 is a huge deal. I'm sure your QoL will drastically improve (though I'm not sure)

Double edit: ok I see what you're actually saying

[blurbz]

A search of TLS shows that you can still bill a low amount of hours and get away with it for a couple years.

Why not work hard for a year or two (depending on your loans) to pay down most of your loans, then bill 2200 or whatever and just make your life easier until you're either shown the door 2-4 years later (which means you already made it 4-6 years) or you find a new job?

You think you can casually bill 2200 hours?

My thought exactly. Unfortunately, it's not that easy. You can't pick and choose projects to suit your lifestyle: When you're on a big deal, it's going to take a lot of time no matter what you want it to do. Maybe it won't destroy your life and push your other work, but it might. If you manage maneuver to get yourself on a small deal because you want to bill "only 2200" this year, that deal is still going to take however long it takes: Maybe it actually IS a small deal, but maybe it'll explode or they'll renegotiate at the last minute and everything will change or the stock prices will change drastically and necessitate new terms or a bigger acquirer swoops in to pick up your client, who is still going to acquire the original target and now you're on both sides of a transaction or or or or or....and suddenly you've billed 100 hours in a week to a deal that, had everything gone smoothly, you thought you'd get away from 25 hours and a round of golf later.

Not to say it's not a good goal to have, it's just harder to do than it sounds like it should be.

[Theopliske8711]

How many projects are you guys working on at any given time? Are you usually assigned to one deal and bill for that?

[blurbz]

How many projects are you guys working on at any given time? Are you usually assigned to one deal and bill for that?

Different deals at different stages (diligence, closing, doc drafting, etc.) coupled with discrete tasks related to other matters (research projects, correspondence drafting, filings, etc.). It varies.

[84651846190]

A search of TLS shows that you can still bill a low amount of hours and get away with it for a couple years.

Why not work hard for a year or two (depending on your loans) to pay down most of your loans, then bill 2200 or whatever and just make your life easier until you're either shown the door 2-4 years later (which means you already made it 4-6 years) or you find a new job?

lol

[twenty]

A search of TLS shows that you can still bill a low amount of hours and get away with it for a couple years.

Why not work hard for a year or two (depending on your loans) to pay down most of your loans, then bill 2200 or whatever and just make your life easier until you're either shown the door 2-4 years later (which means you already made it 4-6 years) or you find a new job?

lol

I'm curious to as why this isn't a thing, too.

It seems really counter-intuitive for a normal workplace, I'll grant you, but what are the repercussions to biglaw?

[HRomanus]

How are bonuses/raises handled?

[IAFG]

A search of TLS shows that you can still bill a low amount of hours and get away with it for a couple years.

Why not work hard for a year or two (depending on your loans) to pay down most of your loans, then bill 2200 or whatever and just make your life easier until you're either shown the door 2-4 years later (which means you already made it 4-6 years) or you find a new job?

lol

I'm curious to as why this isn't a thing, too.

It seems really counter-intuitive for a normal workplace, I'll grant you, but what are the repercussions to biglaw?

Hours don't come out of a soft serve hours dispenser.

[bk1]

Even if you could turn down work, someone still has to do it. I'm not sure most people are capable of being cold and calculating enough to consistently consign their co-junior associates that they are working a case/deal with to working significantly longer hours than themselves.

[IAFG]

If you averaged my billables this week and last week I'd be billing like 45 hours a week. Sounds pretty chill, right? Until you know I have billed a total of 7 hours this week.

[El Pollito]

A search of TLS shows that you can still bill a low amount of hours and get away with it for a couple years.

Why not work hard for a year or two (depending on your loans) to pay down most of your loans, then bill 2200 or whatever and just make your life easier until you're either shown the door 2-4 years later (which means you already made it 4-6 years) or you find a new job?

lol

I'm curious to as why this isn't a thing, too.

It seems really counter-intuitive for a normal workplace, I'll grant you, but what are the repercussions to biglaw?

Hours don't come out of a soft serve hours dispenser.

Hey now, I thought this was a hate buffet!

[HRomanus]

If you averaged my billables this week and last week I'd be billing like 45 hours a week. Sounds pretty chill, right? Until you know I have billed a total of 7 hours this week.

So what do you do with yourself at the office (other than post on TLS) when the billables aren't there?

[IAFG]

If you averaged my billables this week and last week I'd be billing like 45 hours a week. Sounds pretty chill, right? Until you know I have billed a total of 7 hours this week.

So what do you do with yourself at the office (other than post on TLS) when the billables aren't there?

What do you mean, other than... ?

[iliketurtles123]

If you averaged my billables this week and last week I'd be billing like 45 hours a week. Sounds pretty chill, right? Until you know I have billed a total of 7 hours this week.

So what do you do with yourself at the office (other than post on TLS) when the billables aren't there?

Also do you have to stay at the office during down time? If you do, and if you're only billing 7 hours, how long do you have to stay at the office for?
And how predictable is your schedule on a daily or weekly basis?

[El Pollito]

If you averaged my billables this week and last week I'd be billing like 45 hours a week. Sounds pretty chill, right? Until you know I have billed a total of 7 hours this week.

So what do you do with yourself at the office (other than post on TLS) when the billables aren't there?

Also do you have to stay at the office during down time? If you do, and if you're only billing 7 hours, how long do you have to stay at the office for?
And how predictable is your schedule on a daily or weekly basis?

Generally, because someone might call you for something. How long you have to stay depends on who you're working with.

[IAFG]

Hey now, I thought this was a hate buffet!

[IAFG]

Also do you have to stay at the office during down time?

Yes. My 7 hours has been in 12-48 minute junks of crap.

If you do, and if you're only billing 7 hours, how long do you have to stay at the office for?

The generally accepted departure time at my office is 7.
Last night I billed 3 hours from 5-8 because that's when I got that shit.

And how predictable is your schedule on a daily or weekly basis?

I have two levels of awareness about what's coming: unknown and I'm fucked.

[HRomanus]

If you averaged my billables this week and last week I'd be billing like 45 hours a week. Sounds pretty chill, right? Until you know I have billed a total of 7 hours this week.

So what do you do with yourself at the office (other than post on TLS) when the billables aren't there?

What do you mean, other than... ?

Seriously, is there an expectation that you look busy when you're just waiting for billables? What do gunner associates do?

[IAFG]

Seriously, is there an expectation that you look busy when you're just waiting for billables? What do gunner associates do?

We all sit in our little boxes. I guess sometimes venture out to see if anyone needs help on anything but since people kept handing off things they needed help on, and I told everyone I have nothing, I'm not doing that. Since I actually want some work, pretending to be busy would be pretty dumb.

[iliketurtles123]

If you averaged my billables this week and last week I'd be billing like 45 hours a week. Sounds pretty chill, right? Until you know I have billed a total of 7 hours this week.

So what do you do with yourself at the office (other than post on TLS) when the billables aren't there?

What do you mean, other than... ?

Seriously, is there an expectation that you look busy when you're just waiting for billables? What do gunner associates do?

I'm curious about this too.
I mean the other posters say they either post on TLS, watch ESPN, or something else

So... on a scale of:
1. You are allowed to surf the web, watch Netflix, or do whatever on your downtime
2. You are "allowed" to do this but just don't get caught
3. You are not allowed to do this (but you guys do it anyway and you'll get some heat for it if you get caught)
What would it be?

[Mal Reynolds]

This is a very weird, middle school fixation on free time. Will we get in trouble for looking at ESPN???

[IAFG]

no one gives a fuck what i am doing unless they want me to be doing something in particular. they don't even care a little bit.

[rayiner]

A search of TLS shows that you can still bill a low amount of hours and get away with it for a couple years.

Why not work hard for a year or two (depending on your loans) to pay down most of your loans, then bill 2200 or whatever and just make your life easier until you're either shown the door 2-4 years later (which means you already made it 4-6 years) or you find a new job?

lol

I'm curious to as why this isn't a thing, too.

It seems really counter-intuitive for a normal workplace, I'll grant you, but what are the repercussions to biglaw?

You're confused about what it means to "bill a low amount of hours and get away with it." If you get lucky and are on a string of cases that leave you at 1,800 for a few years, you won't get canned. But when you're staffed on a case, you have to do the work that you're assigned. If the partner says "I need this by Monday" you can't just say "no." Because then you *will* get canned. Plus, until you do, everyone will hate you. Because if a case will require 800 hours that month from a team of 3 associates, and you shrug off work, that means more work for them. Because somebody has to do it. If nobody does it, the client fires the firm (it happens), and then people do lose their jobs. People don't ordinarily get fired over it because it's obvious to everybody what would happen.

[rayiner]

This is a very weird, middle school fixation on free time. Will we get in trouble for looking at ESPN???

My firm's intranet had a link to ESPN 360 and some other ways to kill time.

[HRomanus]

no one gives a fuck what i am doing unless they want me to be doing something in particular. they don't even care a little bit.

Well shit. Do you try to have 1-2 personal projects that you can pull out in your downtime? Like researching cases? Reading a book? Filming a Youtube vlog? Painting a sea-scape?